The Spring Madness of Mr Sermon (16 page)

^{"Sermon," said Sebastian, "Mr. Sugg said I might get a room here. I can't say for how long, I'm afraid, I'm supposed to be on a walking tour but there's so much to see round here that I want to use Kings-bay as a base and go out every day. Would it be all right if I guaranteed a fortnight?"}

^{"Oh yes, a fortnight's quite all right. Ordinarily it wouldn't matter, but I wasn't really taking visitors this season. I'm going on a trip in June, something I've been meaning to do for quite some time. But do come in, Mr. Sermon ... I ... I really don't know why we're talking on the doorstep," and she led the way across the hall and into a pretty little sitting-room on the right.}

^{Mr. Sermon found himself wondering at her agitation. She must, he thought, be accustomed to lodgers calling on her and in this case she had been warned of his impending arrival by telephone. Yet it was obvious that she was surprised and in some ways disconcerted and there could be no doubting her nervousness for she bustled about seating him and pulling aside the curtains to let in the sun. In the improved light he could see her more clearly and put her age at a little over thirty. She had fair, almost gingery hair, piled in what used to be called 'earphones'. She was tall, and her height was emphasised by her figure which was very slim and virginal, a boyish figure offset by some degree by very attractive hands with long tapering fingers that now fidgeted with a necklace of imitation pearls. He noticed that she wore very little make-up and that her small, almost prim mouth was scarcely touched with lipstick. Her complexion was very clear and she had a long, graceful neck, like the neck of a woman in a mediaeval painting. There was, indeed,}

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^{something vaguely mediaeval about her as a whole and Mr. Sermon, who now had leisure to think about such things, pictured her in a conical hat with a draped veil attached to it, leaning over a balcony and offering a glove to a man on horseback below. Her name, 'Olga', wasn't it, did not suit her. It ought to have been Elaine, or Petronelle, or Rosamund.}

^{Yet the room, which was not at all mediaeval, suited her. It was full of small pieces of furniture and silver-framed photographs of young people in theatrical-looking costumes. Over the painted mantelshelf, between two ostrich-feather fans and two pieces of Coalport china, was a large glass frame containing a spread of theatrical programmes and seeing that he had noticed them her grey eyes smiled and her little mouth twitched so that she looked neither mediaeval nor young-old-maidish, but rather pretty.}

^{"Yes, they are mine, Mr. Sermon, all I've got to show for it I'm afraid."}

^{Mr. Sermon had the laymen's veneration for the stage. He had met thousands of amateur actors but never a single professional, not even a retired professional.}

^{"May I look?"}

^{"Certainly," and she inclined her head gravely.}

^{He studied the programmes and some of the photographs beside the frame. One programme was that of a famous hit of the thirties, Autumn Crocus, and others, lesser known plays, were all of the same period. He could see nobody in the cast list called Olga Boxall but several of the photographs included a recognisable likeness of the slim woman standing beside him. The face and figure seemed to have changed very little but in all the pictures there was laughter behind the eyes.}

^{"Were you ever on the West End stage?"}

^{"No, I'm afraid not, they're all repertory. We toured the second-class dates and seaside resorts. It was before TV became popular and there was a demand in those days. I wasn't very good I'm afraid. I gave it up when my father died and couldn't help out with a sub. It was as good an excuse as any!"}

^{She said this without bitterness and without mock-modesty, and then, rather pointedly, returned to the business of the moment.}

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^{"A fortnight, you said? I could manage that or even a little longer, I won't be shutting up the house until about June ist." "I shall have probably moved on by then," he said. "Could I see}

^{niy room?"}

^{"Of course, this way," and she rustled out, mediaeval again in spite of slacks and sweater and led the way up polished wooden stairs to what looked like a mock minstrel gallery built over the dining-room and having a door in the rear partition that opened on to a narrow corridor. As they went along the passage, he said:}

^{"Have you many visitors in?"}

^{She stopped, rather abruptly, he thought, her hand on the latch of the door and her nervousness, which seemed to have left her in the parlour, returned and brought a flush to her cheeks.}

^{"I haven't any! I wasn't going to take any at all this year. I live here alone. Do you mind"-she was blushing furiously now-"you see, Mr. Sugg said 'a professor' and I ... I imagined someone quite different, an elderly man," and she turned, forcing herself to meet his eye.}

^{Even in his most defeated moments prior to his flight Mr. Sermon had never thought of himself as elderly so that her statement, and to some extent her confusion, could be received as an oblique compliment. He smiled and after a moment's uncertainty, she smiled back at him.}

^{"I'm old enough," he said jocularly, "I'm forty-nine. I ... I don't mind in the least if you don't, but if you'd rather we called it off, I'm sure I could find . . ."}

^{"No!" she said suddenly, "why shouldn't you stay if you'd like to? We aren't living in 1900, are we?"}

^{"No, unfortunately not," he said, with a schoolboy grin and the tension between them broke and they passed into a spotlessly-clean room furnished in oak, with a big latticed window looking on to the pinewood and links.}

^{"This is wonderful," said Mr. Sermon, "I'll stake a claim right away if I may," and he tossed his rucksack on to a coffin-stool under the window.}

^{"There's a much bigger room at the front, if you prefer it." 'No, no, this is fine and I'd like to pay a week in advance. How much?"}

^{"It's out of season," she said, "and I suppose you'll be out for a midday meal. Would four pounds be fair? That would include cooked breakfast and a cold supper!"}

^{"Very fair indeed I should think," said Mr. Sermon, "almost pre-war!" and he took out his wallet and handed her one of Tapper's five-pound notes.}

^{"I'll get your change, and I dare say you'd like a wash."}

^{"As a matter of fact I'd like a swim," said Mr. Sermon. "This is the first glimpse I've had of the sea since last August and it looked marvellous as I came along."}

^{"A swim? You'll find it cold, surely?"}

^{"I don't stay in more than a few minutes," he said, "I'll change here and take my togs down to the beach. Then I'll get some lunch in the town and go up to the Headland. What time do you have supper?"}

^{"Any time," she said, "I've only myself to please for eight months of the year. Between June and September I have a sort of staff but the rest of the time I make do with a daily. Shall we say about 7.30?"}

^{"Certainly. Until 7.30 then?"}

^{"Do you like TV?"}

^{"Some programmes."}

^{"I've got a TV. You might care to watch it. There's very little to do in the evenings in Kingsbay, I'm afraid."}

^{"That's why I came here," said Mr. Sermon, "there was far too much doing in the evenings where I come from."}

^"London?"

^{He nodded, "I loathe it, I always think the best sight in London is Waterloo Station."}

^{"It can be a terribly lonely place," she said quietly and then, as though to herself, "even worse than th's, I imagine. I'll get your change," and she left him with the feeling that she had told him the most important thing about her.}

^{Olga Boxall was right, the water was so cold that it made him gasp and swim with frantic speed along the distance between the}

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^{breakwaters, back again and then out to towel himself with terrific gusto. The dark young woman with the children was still there engrossed in her book but he noted with satisfaction that she had put it down and watched him as soon as she was sure he was going}

^{to swim.}

^{As he went up the beach, glowing from exercise and thoroughly toned up by the dip, the young woman smiled again and said, "Excuse me, but haven't we met? You're Mr. Sermon, aren't you?" and he stopped, dumb with surprise, realising that his fancy earlier in the day was fact and that the girl was not a stranger.}

^{"I ... I'm quite sure we have," he said, eagerly, "but upon my word I can't recall where or when! People say I've got a good memory and I suppose I have for things I read, but I'm dreadful at remembering names and faces. I suppose it's because I'm rather short-sighted."}

^{The young woman laughed, showing beautiful teeth. "Perhaps you'd better put your glasses on," she said and he did so but his frown told her this did not help in the least.}

^{"It's no good," he said, "I used to put on an act and fish about for identity clues but I'm too old for that nonsense. I know we've met but it was a long time ago and I can't say more than that!"}

^{"It was ten years ago," she said, "at that dreadful little school with that awful humbug of a headmaster, and I only hope you left long ago and had more luck than me!"}

^{"School? Napier Hall? Ten years . . . ?" And then, although he was still unable to recall her name or anything of importance about her, he placed her, an aloof eighteen-year-old who had spent a single term at the school as Assistant Matron to the redoubtable Mrs. Fishwick but had left without giving notice and been swallowed up in the swarm of fugitives who used schools like Napier Hall as transit camps and got out of them at the first opportunity.}

^{I do remember now," he said, "but I'm extremely surprised that you should remember me. You weren't there very long and there must have been a dozen on the staff at that time!"}

^{"Oh, I don't remember any of the others," she said gaily. "You stuck because . . . well, because I remember thinking of you as a fellow-sufferer. Apart from that you were kinder to me than anyone}

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^{else and didn't nag or try and get me on my own on the pretence of dishing out avuncular advice!"}

^{"Good Lord," he exclaimed, shocked by this information, "did some of the others do that?"}

^{"Well, the Head did, the seedy old scoundrel! Several times in the study and once in the laundry room. He used to give me encouraging little pats in all the wrong places and he always smelled of mothballs. I remember he once offered me a bag of caramels. I've heard of all kinds of currency but caramels are a bit much, don't you think ? Is he still bumbling around or have you lost touch?"}

^{"I've lost touch," he said, "but only recently. As a matter of fact I've only just left and I did it even more off-handedly than you did! I walloped a boy and caused quite a scene, then I gave notice on the spot and hopped it! I'm on the run from Napier Hall you might say, for I expect the boy's father will bring a summons against the place. I say, did you really hate it so much? I didn't you know, not then, or at all events, I didn't know that I hated it. It came on me suddenly like a brainstorm and I had to get out that instant and not only run from Napier Hall but from everything. Nobody knows where I am, not even my wife and family!"}

^{She looked at him with amused surprise.}

^{"Well, I'm damned!" she said at length, "you can never tell about people, can you? I mean, you can drive them so far and then-ping! The elastic snaps! Weren't you happy at home either?"}

^{Her frankness disconcerted him. She had a trick of asking intimate questions in the ingenuous way of a half-grown child who embarrasses adults without the slightest intention of doing so. He said:}

^{"I imagined I was, as happy as most people, but my wife and family seemed to be growing away from me all the time. We didn't wrangle or fight, not until the last moment, that is!"}

^{"When did all this happen?"}

^{"The day before yesterday!" he said and as he stated this the time factor staggered him, for it seemed a part of his life as distant as his schooldays or the time when this girl was drifting about Napier Hall dodging the lash of Matron's tongue and the furtive pawings of the Reverend Victor Hawley.}

^{"Well I'm damned!" she exclaimed for the second time, "the day}

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^{before yesterday. Forty-eight hours ago. You walked out, just like that! Do you know how long it took me to screw up courage to do the same thing?"}

^{"Oh, come now, not that long, you were only at Napier Hall one term, weren't you?"}

^{"I'm not talking about Napier Hall," she said, impatiently, "I've had a dozen jobs since then and at least four other schools. I'm talking about walking out on a husband and then nerving myself to face the divorce court!"}

^{"You're divorced?"}