Free (6/13) Gossip from Thrush Green by Miss Read Page B

peace.'
    'Thank you, my dear, but I am quite all right. The air will refresh me.'
    Agnes watched her walk to the gate, as spry as a sparrow, and none the worse it seemed for her tumble. She returned, full of foreboding, to the scene of battle.
    'Who is that interfering old busybody?' Ray was asking, as she returned.
    'A dear friend of mine,' replied Dorothy, 'and a true animal lover. I absolutely agree with her that it was monstrous of you to leave that dog shut in the car.'
    Kathleen's hysterics were now slightly muted, but had turned to shattering hiccups.
    'If you remember,' she began, and gave a mighty hiccup, 'you yourself refused to have poor Harrison indoors.'
    'I should have thought that even you knew better than to leave the car hermetically sealed. Calling yourselves animal lovers,' said Dorothy, with withering scorn. 'And the poor thing so badly trained that it cannot be brought into a Christian household.'
    She bent down to retrieve the best china from the floor, whilst Ray picked up teaspoons with one hand and dabbed at the goat's milk with the other holding his handkerchief.
    ' Please , Ray,' said Dorothy, 'leave the mess to Agnes and me. We don't want it made worse by the use of your handkerchief.'
    Agnes felt that, provoked though she might well be, such a slur on the cleanliness of her brother's personal linen, was carrying things rather far.
    'I will fetch some clean water and a cloth,' she said hastily, and made her escape.
    A wild wailing noise followed her. Obviously, Kathleen was off again!
    'I think,' Ray was saying, when she returned with her cleaning materials, 'that we had better be going.'
    'I whole-heartedly agree,' said Dorothy, standing facing him.
    'You have thoroughly upset poor Kathleen,' he went on, 'and you know how she suffers with migraine.'
    'When it suits her,' responded Dorothy.
    'Are you implying,' cried her incensed brother, 'that Kathleen pretends to have these dreadful attacks?'
    A terrible hiccup arrested Kathleen's wailing. She was now on her feet, eyes blazing.
    'How dare you say such things? You know I'm a martyr to migraine! Not that I've ever had the slightest sympathy from you. You are the wickedest, most callous, unfeeling—'
    Another hiccup rendered her temporarily speechless. Ray took the opportunity to put his arm about his wife, and to shepherd her and the panting Harrison to the door.
    'Come along, my dear. We'll go straight back to The Fleece, and you must lie down with one of your tablets.'
    'But poor Harrison hasn't had his tea,' wailed Kathleen. 'You know he likes it on the hearth rug!'
    'There is plenty for him,' observed Dorothy, 'wherever he looks on the carpet.'
    It was Agnes who saw them to the door, and then into their car.
    'I shall never come here again,' cried Kathleen, still hic-cuping violently.
    'We are deeply wounded,' said Ray. 'I don't think I shall want to see Dorothy—sister though she is - for a very long time!'
    They drove towards Lulling, Harrison still barking, and Agnes returned to break the dreadful news that Dorothy might never see the pair again.
    'What a relief!' said her headmistress, with infinite satisfaction. 'Now, we'll just get this place to rights, and have a quiet evening with our knitting, Agnes dear.'

7. The Fire
    A FTER such a devastating experience it was hardly surprising that little Miss Fogerty slept badly. Usually, she read for half an hour, and then was more than ready to plump up her pillows, put out the bedside light, and welcome deep sleep within ten minutes.
    But on this occasion sleep evaded her. She went over, in her mind, all the terrible details of that catastrophic tea party. The noise of Kathleen's hysterical wailing still sounded in her ears. Ray's furious face, and Dorothy's tart retorts tormented her memory.
    St Andrew's clock struck midnight, and she tossed back the bedclothes and went to survey Thrush Green by moonlight.
    It was still and beautiful. No lights shone from the houses around the green, but the