“Why go into it?” Johnny said feebly.
“...with Geraldine. That was her name, Geraldine. So Kelsey drove, as she wanted to.”
“This is all so unnecessary,” Alice said.
Philip looked at her. “You think so? Well, don’t listen. None of it was my fault but I’ve had to answer for it all. She couldn’t get back at fate so she got back at me. I was the one who plucked out her eyes!”
“I’ll go and get the cognac,” Johnny said. He went out quickly, slamming the door behind him.
“We’ve all paid,” Alice said after a time.
“But for what? Do we have to pay because she is blind? What have I done to Kelsey that she’d like to see me dead?”
“She wouldn’t,” Alice said, but the protest was faint, there was nothing behind it to hold it up.
“She’d like to see us all dead, even the dog! Then she could die too, without bitterness. But she won’t die till then, till we’re dead. You notice what extraordinarily good care she takes of herself. Biding her time, that’s what she’s doing.”
His voice rang out loud and strangely false, as if he were giving a reading full of passion and could reproduce the strength of the passion only by raising his voice.
Second-hand emotion, Alice thought, and second-hand words. He doesn’t mean any of it, he’s flaying himself so he’ll have the courage to leave.
“You imagine too much,” she said. “You’re like Kelsey. Kelsey has a new idea.”
Something in her tone made him look up.
“Now what?”
“She thinks I am in love with you.”
She saw that he couldn’t believe it at first. His face loosened with surprise. When it tightened up again it looked peevish, as if he were saying silently, Haven’t I enough trouble without that?
“It’s not true, of course,” he said at last.
Here is my chance, Alice thought. It will never come again.
She laughed and said, “Of course not!”
His whole body relaxed. Her laugh and her denial were a poultice drawing out the tension.
“Well, thank God,” he said with a sigh.
“Yes, aren’t you lucky? A completely free agent now.” She was trembling with loathing for herself and for this man who would have denied her and flung her gifts back in her face. “Nothing to keep you here, is there?”
“No.”
“Don’t tempt your fates by saying good-bye to anyone.”
“Sneak out with my tail between my legs,” Philip said. “This is the way the world ends. What if I come back?”
“The door will be locked!” she said savagely. “So don’t try it!”
He stepped back as if to see her better. He was smiling.
“Why, you do hate me,” he said softly. “I didn’t think you had it in you. Perhaps you’re more like Kelsey than you...”
His head jerked toward the door.
Ida was standing just inside the room, twisting her apron in her hands, breathing noisily through her mouth. Her face shone red in the light.
“Ida!” Alice said.
The girl moved closer, all shining, her teeth and the ring on her finger and her eyes and her nails.
“She’s dead,” Ida said, glowing with sweat.
Philip strode across the room and grasped one of her damp fat arms. “What? What?”
“She’s dead,” Ida said, and her voice was gentle and sly. “She just died. She just died right now.”
Chapter 5
Kelsey was lying on the bed. The lamp was on and turned full on her face as if Ida had moved it to make sure she was dead.
Alice touched Kelsey’s forehead and her hand came away drenched with sweat.
“Kelsey,” she whispered. “Kelsey.”
The skin was warmed but there was no flutter of her eyelids, no movement of her breast.
She turned and saw Philip leaning against the door frame and behind him Ida, rolling her eyes.
“A mirror,” Alice said. “Fetch a mirror.”
“No!” Philip shouted. “Leave her alone. Leave Kelsey alone.”
Ida darted past his clutching hand and went to the bureau. She picked up the mirror and polished it with her apron as she walked toward the bed. Then she folded her arms over her breasts, waiting.
Alice held the mirror close to Kelsey’s face. A fine mist dulled the glass.
“What did I tell you?” Ida cried.
“She’s not dead,” Alice said quietly. “Tell Letty to...”
“This is Tuesday and Letty and Maurice went to the pictures.”
“Ida, get hot-water bottles. Philip, you’ll stay here? I must phone a doctor.”
“She is too dead!” Ida said. “I guess I seen lots of...”
She reeled back, holding her mouth where Alice had struck her.
“I’ve had enough from you,” Alice said. “Get downstairs.”
She pushed the girl out in front of her into the hall. Ida was crying now and muttering to herself as she lurched down the steps.
Alice went into the sitting room at the end of the hall and picked up the phone. She seemed calm and controlled now, she might have been phoning an old friend. Her fingers did not falter finding the numbers on the dial, Kingsley 2124.
He answered the phone himself. She recognized his voice.
“Dr. Loring? This is Alice Heath.”
“I remember,” he said. “Anything wrong?”
“Can you come out here right away? My... my sister — I think my sister is dying.”
“Dying? What happened?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. She was all right two hours ago and now she’s like this, in a coma.”
“Coma,” he said. “Any heart history?”
“No.”
“Diabetes, catalepsy, anything like that in her history?”
“No.”
“I’ll be right out. Ten minutes.”
She hung up and went back to Kelsey’s room. Philip was kneeling on the floor beside the bed, his face pressed against one of Kelsey’s hands.
“Get up!” Her voice rasped across the room. “Haven’t you any sense? You might do her some harm.”
He turned his head slowly and looked at her, his eyes dazed. “You, Alice?”
“Get out of here,” she said harshly. “The doctor is coming in a minute.”
He didn’t move. She went over and pulled him to his feet. Her thin fingers dug into his shoulders. It gave her bitter pleasure to hurt him and see him wince.
“I’m tired of fools!” she said violently. “Go downstairs and tell John to let the doctor in when he comes. Maurice is out. And you... you’d better go out, too. Go and walk somewhere. Do you understand?”
He nodded wearily. “Walk somewhere. Yes.”
“You’ll feel better,” she said, more softly.
When he had gone she pulled a chair over to the bed and sat down to wait. Her hands were folded quietly in her lap, her back was stiff and straight. She was so intent on holding the pose that she didn’t hear Loring come into the room.
Seeing her, he thought, smiling, She’s still at it. But he was a little touched because he saw that she was smaller than he remembered her.
“Good evening.”
“Oh.” She started. “Good evening.”
She got up and gave him the chair beside the bed. He sat down with his instrument bag across his knees and took Kelsey’s wrist in his hand;
“Dr. Loring...”
Frowning, he reached over and raised one of Kelsey’s eyelids.
“What’s wrong with her, Dr. Loring?”
He didn’t answer her directly. He said, “Go and phone the General Hospital and ask for Hale, the chief pathologist. Tell him to come out here prepared to give a caffeine intravenous and a stomach wash for morphine poisoning. Got that?”
She nodded but couldn’t speak.
“Now I want blankets and hot-water bottles. Where are the servants?”
“I’ve sent for the hot-water bottles,” she said in a whisper. “There are blankets in the closet.”
“Good. Hale at the General. Tell him it’s an overdose of morphine. Please hurry.”