Agatha Christie The Hollow Chapter I At 6:13 a.m. ... - bzelbublive.info

just a little uneasy. When she spoke it was with such venom that he recoiled."Who is she?" "She? Who do you mean?" "That woman by the mantelpiece lastnight?" Henrietta! he thought. How the devil did she get on to Henrietta? Aloudhe said: "Who are you talking about? Midge Hardcastle?" "Midge? That'sthe square dark girl, isn't it? No, I don't mean her. And I don't mean your wife. Imean that insolent devil who^ H was leaning against the mantlepiece! It's because of her that you're turningme down! Oh, don't pretend to be so moral about your wife and children. It's thatother woman." She got up and came towards him. "Don't you understand, John,that ever since I came back to England, eighteen months ago, I've been thinkingabout you? Why do you imagine I took this idiotic place here? Simply because Ifound out that you often came down for week-ends with the Angkatells!" "Solast night was all planned, Veronica?" "You belong to me, John. You always have!""I don't belong to anyone, Veronica!Hasn't life taught you even now that you can't own other human beings body andsoul? I loved you when I was a young man. I wanted you to share my life. You wouldn'tdo it!" "My life and career were much more important than yours! Anyone can bea doctor!" He lost his temper a little. "Are you quite as wonderful as you thinkyou are?" "You mean that I haven't got to the top of the tree. I shall! / shall!"John Christow looked at her with a sudden quite dispassionate interest. "I don'tbelieve, you know, that you will . . . There's a lack in you, Veronica. You're allgrab and snatch--no real generosity--I think that's it ..."Veronica got up. She said in a quiet voice: "You turned me down fifteen years ago. . . You've turned me down again today. I'll make you sorry for this." John got upand went to the door. "I'm sorry, Veronica, if I've hurt you. You're very lovely, mydear, and I once loved you very much. Can't we leave it at that?" "Good-bye,John. We're not leaving it at that. You'll find that out all right. I think --I think Ihate you more than I believed I could hate anyone." He shrugged his shoulders."I'm sorry. Goodbye." John walked back slowly through the wood. When he got tothe swimming poolhe sat down on the bench there. He had no regrets for his treatment of Veronica.Veronica, he thought dispassionately, was a nasty bit of work. She always had been anasty bit of work and the best thing he had ever done was to get clear of her in time-w God alone knew what would have happened to him by now if he hadn't! Asit was, he had that extraordinary sensation of starting a new life, unfettered andunhampered by the past. He must have been extremely difficult to live with for the lastyear or two. Poor Gerda, he thought, with her unselfishness and her continual anxietyto please him. He would be kinder in future. And perhaps now he would be able to stoptrying to bully Henrietta. Not that one couldreally bully Henrietta--she wasn't made that way. Storms broke over her and she stoodthere, meditative, her eyes looking at you from very far away . . . He thought, I shall