Rachel shook her head.

“No. Father wanted me to try, so I tried, and I’ve gone on trying, but it doesn’t seem to be any use.”

“Well, I liked Master Sonny, and if ever he does turn up, you’ll know it’s him right enough, because there was a man in the place where we were that did tattooing-and if Mr. Brent didn’t have that poor child’s name pricked out on his arm! The left arm it was, and just above the elbow. A downright shame, and so I told him. But he only laughed, and Master Sonny stuck up his chin and said, ‘I didn’t cry-did I?’ And no more he hadn’t, and it must have hurt him cruel. And how Mr. Brent could have stood by to see that poor child maltreated like that-well it passes me. And that reminds me of little Miss Rosemary March. She used to come visiting to Mr. Frith’s when I had Mr. Cosmo. Half a crown a time her mother used to give her when she had to go to the dentist, and Mrs. Frith, she was wonderful taken with the idea, and I said to her, ‘No, ma’am, if you please. If Master Cosmo don’t learn to bear pain now he never will.’ And with one thing and another that’s how I come to leave and go out to your dear mother that had Miss Mabel on her hands five years old and expecting you every minute. And I took you from the month. But Mr. Cosmo’s grown a fine man, and I’m pleased to think I had him in my nursery, if it was only six months. Often drops in he does when he’s this way. And the stories he’s got to tell, why you wouldn’t believe there was such goings on-now would you? But he ought to get himself a good wife to settle him down, for he’s not as young as he was, and so I told him last time he was here. ‘But Nanny,’ he says, ‘what can a poor fellow do if the one he wants won’t have him?’ ‘Go on asking her,’ I said. And he looks at me very solemn and says, ‘What have I got to offer her, Nanny? A parcel of debts, a tongue that wags too fast, a roomful of pictures that nobody cares to buy, and a heartful of love that she don’t want. She could have had me any time these twenty years, and she knows it.’ And I patted him on the shoulder and told him that faint heart never won fair lady.”

Rachel got up. Cosmo had been proposing to her at intervals ever since she grew up. It was a habit, and she had come to take it as no more than his rather tiresome way of expressing cousinly affection. But just at this moment to feel that a proposal from Cosmo was lurking among the watercolors which he would certainly insist on showing her either tonight or in the very near future was really the very, very last straw. And Nanny to be coming over all sentimental and trying to plead his cause! Anger put crispness into her tone as she said,

“It’s a mistake to go on when people don’t want you to, Nanny. Tell him to look for somebody else before it’s too late. And now I must go.”

“Oh, Miss Rachel, it’s early yet.”

Mrs. Capper knew when she had gone too far. Her tone was a propitiatory one. It promised, “Sit down and talk, and I won’t say another word about Mr. Cosmo.” But Rachel shook her head.

“No, I must go. I’ve got someone arriving by the five-thirty-they’ll be up at the house before I am now.”

“The clock’s fast, Miss Rachel. Did you hear about Mr. Tollage digging out his hedge, and the adders that was in it? Gave me the creeps it did to hear about them.” She kept hold of Rachel’s hand and talked fast to beguile her into staying. “I said to Ellen, ‘I don’t thank Mr. Tollage for nothing, turning all them snakes out to find new lodgings. I’m not letting any,’ I said. ‘And you keep a sharp look out that they don’t come worming themselves in.’ And what do you think she told me she’d seen with her own eyes? You’d never credit it, but those young rascals of boys was selling adders a penny apiece to anyone that was fool enough to buy. They say old Betty Martin bought a good few-and if she isn’t a witch, there’s never been no such thing. And Ellen says two of the boys spoke up and told her they’d sold a couple of lives ones-caught them in a shrimping net and tied it up with string. Though what in the world anyone ’ud want live adders for passes me.”

Rachel got her hand away, but she was no longer in a hurry to go. Her knees felt weak. She managed enough voice to say,

“What boys? Who bought the snakes?”

“They were strangers to Ellen. All they said was a lady in a green scarf had bought the two live adders, shrimping net and all. She gave them a good half-crown too. That was a funny thing, wasn’t it, when you come to think of it?”

“Yes,” said Rachel. She wondered if her voice sounded as strange to Nanny as it did to herself.

Mrs. Capper shook her head with its neatly plaited hair and its little lace cap.

“Because what would anyone want a pair of live adders for?”

“I can’t think,” said Rachel. “Goodnight, Nanny-I really must go.”

Chapter Fifteen

Rachel stood in the dark by the gate of Mrs. Capper’s cottage and tried to pull herself together. Cherry had gone away that morning in a bright green scarf-a flaring emerald scarf which even in the dusk might catch a child’s eye and be remembered. But anyone could have a green scarf. Caroline had one-jade green, very bright-too bright. Mabel had given it to her for her birthday only a week ago.

A trembling took Rachel-a sick trembling. Not Caroline. No, no, no-not Caroline! There are things you can’t believe.

She stood quite still. The air was very cold. The trembling passed. She got out her torch and switched it on. The beam was so faint that it hardly showed her the gate against which she leaned. She could scarcely believe her eyes, for the battery was a new one put in that morning. She hesitated as to whether she would take the cliff path after all, or whether it would be safer to go the long way round by the road. But the road was a very long way round, the cliff path safe enough for anyone who knew it. Her eyes had already accustomed themselves sufficiently to the darkness for her to be able to distinguish the outline of the cottage against the sky, and the lighter surface of the road.

She put out the torch, walked a little way, and found that she could see well enough. It was quite easy to make out the path, and that was all that really mattered. There was just one place where it ran for about twenty yards right on the edge of the cliff with a long drop to the beach. She thought she would save the torch and use it there. This was the one dangerous spot, for the low parapet which guarded it was under reconstruction, most of it having collapsed in the heavy storms of a month ago.

She had just switched the torch on, and was finding it more confusing than helpful, when she thought she heard a footstep behind her. She stood still to listen, the torch swinging in her hand, making a dancing pattern on the path. There was both relief and warmth at her heart. Twice out of the last three times that she had been to see Nanny, Gale Brandon had appeared from nowhere to walk home with her along the cliffs. She had left early tonight. She did not doubt for a moment that he had found her gone and was following her now. Without appearing to wait for him, she thought that she might dally a little and give him a chance to catch her up. The idea of company was pleasant. She had no wish to listen to her own thoughts.

She walked a few paces and stood at the edge of the path looking out over the sea. It was a high tide and far in, but only the very highest tide with a winter gale behind it ever reached the foot of the cliffs. Black ridges of rock ran down into black water. There were scarcely visible, darker shadows in a general gloom, but she knew that they were there. Over them and over the cliff the wind blew cold. It had voice enough to drown the sound of the oncoming footsteps. There had been a lull, and there would be a lull again. She waited for it and listened, looking out over the water.