- Book info
- Sample
- Media
- Author updates
- Lists
Synopsis
The roar of a lion is not the kind of music one expects to hear at night in the stillness of the English countryside. Yet in the neighbourhood of 'Ganges', Sir Benjamin Watson's house, that terrifyingly wild sound is not uncommon. Sir Benjamin is rich enough to indulge his expensive hobby of a private zoo. The first time Ann Sherborne, walking at night to the gates of 'Ganges' on that strange, eventful visit, hears the savage roar, her courage dies and she starts to run. But that frightening experience is just a prelude to a night charged with terror, when not only fear but death stalks 'Ganges', playing havoc among the guests assembled there ...
Release date: March 14, 2015
Publisher: Orion
Print pages: 240
* BingeBooks earns revenue from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate as well as from other retail partners.
Reader buzz
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
Author updates
Close
The Man Who Loved Lions
Ethel Lina White
1
ANN SHERBORNE gazed at the ringed date in her pocket-diary. It was the fourteenth of November, 1941.
“After all these years,” she thought, “it has come at last. I can’t believe it. It’s to-night. . . .”
Seven years ago, on a wild November evening, high up in a turret-room which seemed to sway in the wind, this reunion had been arranged. Richard—their host—handed to each guest a card
of typed instructions, reflecting his peculiar humour which specialised in insult.
“Reunion of THE SULLIED SOULS at Ganges, November the fourteenth, 1941. According to custom, the tower-door will be
left open—trustfully and without prejudice to character—from eight to twelve. Bring this card for purpose of identification. In seven years we shall all be changed and inevitably for
the worst. Do not fail to keep this appointment, dead or alive, but preferably if dead. You will be livelier company.”
At the time of their last meeting, Ann only anticipated a temporary separation from her companions. Within forty-eight hours, however, she was on her way to Burma, with her parents. Her father
was a brilliant engineer—as well as an intermittent drunkard—so that his wife had to work overtime to keep him anywhere near dry-level.
The quiet little woman was responsible—indirectly—for some fine constructional work. When she died, she kept the contract in the family by passing on her job to Ann.
During the weeks and months spent in exile, Ann never forgot the reunion. At the beginning of each fresh year, she drew a circle round the date in her pocket-diary. She used to stare at the
enchanted numeral in a passion of longing. Richard’s card of admission grew grimed and limp from being read in many a different scene and climate—high up in boulder-blocked mountains
and besides sliding brown tropical rivers; above the snow-line and in the glare of the desert.
As the years passed, her first doubts began to sharpen into fear. War broke out and her father decided not to return to England. When he signed a contract with a water corporation in Florida,
she gave up hope of keeping her appointment in the flesh.
“There’s only one way,” she told herself. “Get a monkey’s paw, mail it to Richard and pass out. He’ll attend to the rest.”
Near the end of October, 1941, her father died suddenly. At the time it seemed too late for her to return as all the odds were against her. . . . But on the evening of the fourteenth, she was in
a hotel in the heart of London, waiting for the minutes to pass before she set out for the place of reunion.
2
She sat at a small table in the crowded lounge, wedged in her place by a pack of occupied seats, while a continuous procession of people streamed past in search of a vacancy.
Beside her was an elderly man who had come down from Lancashire on business. A keen judge of values, he had noticed her at breakfast and was struck by the force of character evident in her
steadfast eyes and resolute lips.
He was engaged in reading through his list of future engagements and he snapped the band around his book at the same moment as Ann closed her diary. Their eyes met and they smiled at the
duplicated action. He had noticed previously that to her, a stranger was just another human-being and not a possible plague-contact, so he risked speaking to her.
“We both seem to be checking-up on our dates. Are you in business?”
She hesitated because the reunion was her secret; but since the shadow of the tremendous event was beginning to sag over her, she looked at his shrewd kindly face and was tempted to talk.
“My date isn’t business. I’m meeting people I’ve not seen for ages.”
“Friends?” he asked.
“No. . . . It’s queer, but really I know nothing about their private lives. I can’t think how we ever got together. We were students at a college in London and we attended the
same biology lectures.”
“Did you form a club?”
His interest was so kindly that it redeemed his questions from curiosity and Ann was encouraged to expand.
“It was more like a cult. Richard wanted devil-worship but no one would back him up. So we used to meet secretly and discuss world affairs. Richard was always planning purges and he kept a
list of victims. He called us ‘THE SEVEN SULLIED SOULS.’”
“And were you sullied?” asked the Manchester man, smiling at the pompous title.
“I can only speak for myself,” Ann told him. “I was sixteen and very pure. But I kept quiet about my age and all that. As a matter of fact, I can’t believe that anything
could happen to either James or Victoria. James was one of those vague people you forget and Victoria was wrapped up in her work. But John and Isabella were so glamorous that I don’t think
they could stop affairs. . . . And I could believe anything of Richard.”
Even in the heat of the lounge, she shivered at the recollection of his face—intermittently revealed in the leaping firelight—as they sat in the darkened tower-room. Deep lines
gashed it from his extravagantly-arched nostrils to his mouth. She remembered too the corpse-like pallor of his skin, the shining black hair and the sinister upward slant of his brows.
“We were all of us rather afraid of Richard,” she confessed. “He was older than the rest of us and not a regular student. He was just rubbing up biology and he used to sneer at
the lecturer. He thought it funny to say hurtful things.”
“Why didn’t you kick him out?”
“Because, in a way, he helped to make the thrill. He seemed a sort of distorted genius. Besides, to be honest, we wanted to meet at his house. He lived with a wealthy uncle and there were
always refreshments and drinks.”
The marble pillars and gilded walls of the hotel lounge faded out as Ann thought of the last session in the tower-room. She remembered the roaring wind and the trails of ivy which tapped on the
window-panes.
“We’ll hold a reunion here, seven years from to-night,” declared Richard. “By then, my old uncle should be hanged and I shall be lord of the manor. Possibly one of you
may be successful, and damned, but I promise the rest of you jobs. Something in the Hercules tradition.”
“I bar elephant-stables,” said one of them. “Otherwise, count me in. Already I feel a man with a future.”
Of course it was Stephen who spoke—Stephen who was merely amused by Richard and whose laughter could extract the sting from the most envenomed remark.
3
As Ann lapsed into silence, the Manchester man’s interest deepened into a vague sense of responsibility. The hotel was large, central, and gave excellent value. It was
termed “cheap and popular,” so it attracted a mixed collection of guests, among whom were some cheap and popular gentlemen. The Manchester man had noticed that while some of these had
tried to get acquainted with Ann, she seemed unaware of them, as though she were preoccupied with an exclusive interest.
“Have you kept in touch with any of ‘THE SULLIED SOULS’?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “I’ve been abroad and lost touch. My father died at the end of October.”
“How very sad,” he said, shocked by so recent a loss.
“Not for him.” Her voice was level. “It was one of those illnesses you’re thankful to be out of. . . . At the time, it seemed impossible to keep my date. Every one told
me so. But I went on trying and haunting agencies and bribing people. And then, almost at the last moment, I got a cancellation in an air-liner. A palmist had told the man there would be a terrible
accident.”
“So you’re not superstitious?”
“But I am. I was expecting the crash, all the way, but I just hoped I might be lucky.”
“Used to flying, I suppose?”
“No, it was my first trip. It was awful. Whenever we dropped, I left my stomach behind me, up in the air. . . . But it was worth it for it was quick. I made London with time in
hand.”
Again the Manchester man wondered what object had exacted such furious drive and fixity of purpose. Then he calculated the girl’s age as twenty-three while he counted the number of the
“Sullied Souls.”
“You’ve mentioned five names,” he said casually. “You make six. Wasn’t there a seventh member of your club?”
“Yes. Stephen.”
The radiance of her face told the Manchester man why she had flown to England.
“Stephen was wonderful,” she declared. “He had everything. And he gave out all he had.”
Then she looked at her watch, pressed out her cigarette and began to collect her belongings.
“Nearly time to dress,” she said in a different voice. “I’ve been boring you but you asked for it. I thought talking about it would help me to realise it, but I
can’t. I can’t believe that in a short time we shall all be together again, after seven years.”
“Don’t go,” urged the Manchester man. “Wait for the postscript.”
His kindly face had grown grave as he fumbled for words.
“Suppose—Are you sure the others will remember the date?”
“Of course.” Her voice was confident. “They couldn’t forget.”
“Well, my dear, I’m John Blunt. And I’m a grandfather. Will you take some advice from an old-stager? Just ring up this Richard and make sure that it is a date. Remember,
you’re not used to the black-out.”
Ann’s face was thoughtful as she considered the advice.
“I can’t ring up,” she said. “It’s unlikely that Richard would answer the phone and I can’t leave a message. No one must know of our meetings. Secrecy was one
of our vows.”
“Hum. What’s the address?”
“Ganges, Yellow-forge, Surrey. The house is right out in the country, at the end of the Tube. A local bus passes the gates.”
While the Manchester man was jotting down the details, he asked another question.
“What time do you expect to be back?”
“Not much later than one-thirty. We used to catch the last train.”
“Well, I warn you, if you don’t show up, I shall make inquiries about you. I don’t like to see a young girl running risks.”
“What risk?”
“The risk of a big disappointment, to begin with. You’ve not seen these folks for years. They’re bound to be changed and you may be disillusioned.”
“I know. . . . But it’s my chance. I’ve got to get in touch with someone again. This is the only way.”
Pushing back her chair, Ann rose from the table.
“Good-bye,” she said. “Thank you for everything.”
The Manchester man watched her progress through the lounge. She seemed to steer a way amid the crowd by instinct, for she looked ahead as though she were seeing one face only, smiling at her at
the end of a long road.
He grunted and then slumped back in his chair as he began to revise his engagement list. Presently he was joined by his wife—a massive woman with a pleasant face. She had accompanied him
to London for the trip and also to keep an eye upon him.
According to custom, he told her dutifully about his promise to Ann. His story got the usual reception, while she hid her pride in his unselfish character.
“Just like you, Will. Even more daft than usual. I’ve no patience with headstrong girls who run into scrapes and expect other people to get them out. You’ve a heavy day
to-morrow and you need the sleep you can get. You might consider you owe your loyalty to me and the girls. Besides what you propose is utterly useless.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because if she runs into danger, by the time you could take any sort of action, it would be too late to save her.”
4
Ann’s heart beat fast as she rose in the lift up to the fifth floor. It was difficult to believe that somewhere in the blackness of the countryside was the dark pile of
Ganges—the focal point for six sentimental pilgrims. Her search through a postal directory had established its existence and also the fact that its owner was still Sir Benjamin Watson.
“No stable jobs for us,” she chuckled. “I’m glad Richard has not cashed-in.”
When she reached her room, it was still too early to start, so she lay on her bed and smoked while she recalled the journey out to Ganges. The Sullied Souls always met at Piccadilly Circus
Underground Station, where—after a race down the escalators—they crowded into the first train. Every one talked and nobody listened as they shouted across the carriage, swaying from
straphangers and treading on the toes of other passengers.
Afterwards came the interlude of the bus ride through dark lonely country lanes—so dimly visible in the rush of light from their window, that they seemed to be on a ship, ploughing through
cold still waters in search of adventure.
High up in her hotel room, Ann watched the smoke curling from her cigarette as she thought of her companions. All had one thing in common—the name of an English king or queen. Isabella was
doubly royal, since her first name was “Mary.”
“Stephen, Richard, Victoria, Ann, Isabella, James and John,” recited Ann.
James was pale, rather fleshy and smooth-haired. He wore thick glasses and in spite of his youth, his clothes suggested a prosperous professional man. Victoria had an oval expressionless face,
black almond eyes and a straight fringe. Her hands were strong with square-tipped fingers which repelled Ann because of Victoria’s passion for dissection.
These were the two students who always got the highest marks in examinations, but Ann credited them only with brains which could register degrees like a gas-cooker. Their useful glow was
incomparable with the brilliant fire of other Souls. She regarded Isabella as a genius, even while she chose perversely to concentrate on the development of her personality.
She reminded Ann of a picture she had seen of a fatal light which lured benighted travellers into a bog. Behind the flame was lightly sketched a face of unearthly beauty and allure. Isabella had
similar delicate features—the same fastidious lips and elfin gleam in her eyes. She was provocative, impersonal and elusive—attracting masculine homage only to reject it.
John was her opposite number—an arrogant golden youth, fair, fascinating and unstable. He assumed the devilry of a Mayfair playboy and dissipated his talents in versatility; but Ann was
too dazzled by his personality to be critical. In her deep humility, she worshipped both John and Isabella with the gaping admiration of a tourist in a hall of immortal statues. She expected no
notice from them and she received none, but their indifference could not hurt her because she was deeply in love with Stephen.
At the age of sixteen, she concentrated upon him the force of a strong and steadfast nature. Sitting silent at the meetings, she used to watch his face and treasure his words. She retained vivid
memories of the way his hair grew and the clean-cut corners of his mouth. Unhappily, she felt so sure that he must be in her life forever, that she never dreamed of any parting.
The news of the family departure to Burma left her stunned with shock. At the time, she was too bewildered with the rush and too modest and doubtful of his interest in her, even to write him a
note of farewell. Her only consolation was the prospect of her return to England and the hope of meeting him again.
As years passed and she remained in exile, she tried to obtain his address, only to meet with repeated disappointments. Letter after letter returned to her with a faithful instinct which
rivalled her own loyalty. But whenever she felt loneliest, she looked at the ringed figures in her calendar. . . . Every thought and every action led up to a date.
And that date was to-night.
5
She jumped off her bed, drew a fur coat over her suit and pulled a discouraging little hat—sold to her as the latest fashion—over one eye. A few minutes later she
was on her way to the reunion, sinking downward in the lift and pushing through the crowded vestibule. She carried a gas-mask and a pocket-torch, but in spite of their reminds of war conditions,
she had not realised the completeness of the black-out.
When she had passed through the revolving-doors, the light gradually dimmed until she swung round to face a wall of darkness. While her eyes were still dazzled from the illumination of the
lounge, it seemed an absolute eclipse. Presently, however, she distinguished faint gleams from passing traffic and circles mottling the pavement, thrown downward by electric torches. She could see
no pedestrians while she heard voices and footsteps, as though the city were inhabited by an invisible race; but as she lingered in the entrance, she collided with a solid body.
Someone wished to enter the hotel. Stepping aside, she stared before her, when she became aware gradually of blurred shapes passing by. They were so dim and formless that they suggested
survivors from a prehistoric race, groping in their eternal midnight. But as her eyes adapted themselves to the black-out the scene became more normal.
As she watched it she had a sense of being cheated. When she had looked forward to this moment, she had visualised a pre-war London—the brilliant street lights, the changing colours of
advertisement signs and the glowing façades of theatres and cinemas. It was a keen disappointment and made her apprehensive of the future.
“I expect they are all waiting for me in the Underground,” she thought hopefully.
The station was only a few yards from the hotel and she crossed the narrow street in a reckless rush. As she was stumbling down the steps of the nearest entrance she saw the light of the
booking-hall around the corner, as though in fulfilment of her dreams. Instantly the years were forgotten and it seemed only yesterday that she hurried down the subway in her eagerness to meet her
companions.
Breaking into a run, she burst into the hall, expecting to hear her name called by a familiar voice. When no one claimed her, she paused to look around her. After years spent in solitude, she
got an impression of confusion and haste. Every one appeared to be in a hurry to get home. On that evening, there were only a few loiterers and there seemed to be no friendly reunions.
Standing in their usual place she looked at the clock.
“It’s the time we always met,” she reflected. “I’d better stay put.”
As the minutes passed, she grew too impatient to stand and watch the constant stream of passengers, so she went in search of the others. After she had completed the round of the booking-hall
without meeting any one who resembled a Sullied Soul, she felt chilled with fresh disappointment.
“Perhaps we’ve passed without recognising each other,” she thought. “I wonder if I’ve changed much.”
She tried to stare impersonally into a strip of mirror at the back of a shop window. It reflected a tall slender girl, wearing a closely-fitting nigger-brown suit under an open fur coat. Her
dark hair waved to her shoulders and her eyes glowed with excitement in a pale anxious face.
“Actually I look younger,” she decided. “It’s the short skirt and the kid hair style. I’ve lost weight too. But really there’s nothing to it. I ought to
recognise them.”
She told herself that in the course of seven years, no one would grow bald or acquire a stomach of the first magnitude. A girl might change the colour of her hair or a man might grow a beard,
but the salient features would remain. She was trying to pierce problematic disguises when she noticed that the hands of the clock pointed to a quarter to seven.
It was the accustomed signal to wait no longer for stragglers but to dash down to the train. Since she had committed herself to a time-table which covered the hours of eight to twelve, it was
. . .
ANN SHERBORNE gazed at the ringed date in her pocket-diary. It was the fourteenth of November, 1941.
“After all these years,” she thought, “it has come at last. I can’t believe it. It’s to-night. . . .”
Seven years ago, on a wild November evening, high up in a turret-room which seemed to sway in the wind, this reunion had been arranged. Richard—their host—handed to each guest a card
of typed instructions, reflecting his peculiar humour which specialised in insult.
“Reunion of THE SULLIED SOULS at Ganges, November the fourteenth, 1941. According to custom, the tower-door will be
left open—trustfully and without prejudice to character—from eight to twelve. Bring this card for purpose of identification. In seven years we shall all be changed and inevitably for
the worst. Do not fail to keep this appointment, dead or alive, but preferably if dead. You will be livelier company.”
At the time of their last meeting, Ann only anticipated a temporary separation from her companions. Within forty-eight hours, however, she was on her way to Burma, with her parents. Her father
was a brilliant engineer—as well as an intermittent drunkard—so that his wife had to work overtime to keep him anywhere near dry-level.
The quiet little woman was responsible—indirectly—for some fine constructional work. When she died, she kept the contract in the family by passing on her job to Ann.
During the weeks and months spent in exile, Ann never forgot the reunion. At the beginning of each fresh year, she drew a circle round the date in her pocket-diary. She used to stare at the
enchanted numeral in a passion of longing. Richard’s card of admission grew grimed and limp from being read in many a different scene and climate—high up in boulder-blocked mountains
and besides sliding brown tropical rivers; above the snow-line and in the glare of the desert.
As the years passed, her first doubts began to sharpen into fear. War broke out and her father decided not to return to England. When he signed a contract with a water corporation in Florida,
she gave up hope of keeping her appointment in the flesh.
“There’s only one way,” she told herself. “Get a monkey’s paw, mail it to Richard and pass out. He’ll attend to the rest.”
Near the end of October, 1941, her father died suddenly. At the time it seemed too late for her to return as all the odds were against her. . . . But on the evening of the fourteenth, she was in
a hotel in the heart of London, waiting for the minutes to pass before she set out for the place of reunion.
2
She sat at a small table in the crowded lounge, wedged in her place by a pack of occupied seats, while a continuous procession of people streamed past in search of a vacancy.
Beside her was an elderly man who had come down from Lancashire on business. A keen judge of values, he had noticed her at breakfast and was struck by the force of character evident in her
steadfast eyes and resolute lips.
He was engaged in reading through his list of future engagements and he snapped the band around his book at the same moment as Ann closed her diary. Their eyes met and they smiled at the
duplicated action. He had noticed previously that to her, a stranger was just another human-being and not a possible plague-contact, so he risked speaking to her.
“We both seem to be checking-up on our dates. Are you in business?”
She hesitated because the reunion was her secret; but since the shadow of the tremendous event was beginning to sag over her, she looked at his shrewd kindly face and was tempted to talk.
“My date isn’t business. I’m meeting people I’ve not seen for ages.”
“Friends?” he asked.
“No. . . . It’s queer, but really I know nothing about their private lives. I can’t think how we ever got together. We were students at a college in London and we attended the
same biology lectures.”
“Did you form a club?”
His interest was so kindly that it redeemed his questions from curiosity and Ann was encouraged to expand.
“It was more like a cult. Richard wanted devil-worship but no one would back him up. So we used to meet secretly and discuss world affairs. Richard was always planning purges and he kept a
list of victims. He called us ‘THE SEVEN SULLIED SOULS.’”
“And were you sullied?” asked the Manchester man, smiling at the pompous title.
“I can only speak for myself,” Ann told him. “I was sixteen and very pure. But I kept quiet about my age and all that. As a matter of fact, I can’t believe that anything
could happen to either James or Victoria. James was one of those vague people you forget and Victoria was wrapped up in her work. But John and Isabella were so glamorous that I don’t think
they could stop affairs. . . . And I could believe anything of Richard.”
Even in the heat of the lounge, she shivered at the recollection of his face—intermittently revealed in the leaping firelight—as they sat in the darkened tower-room. Deep lines
gashed it from his extravagantly-arched nostrils to his mouth. She remembered too the corpse-like pallor of his skin, the shining black hair and the sinister upward slant of his brows.
“We were all of us rather afraid of Richard,” she confessed. “He was older than the rest of us and not a regular student. He was just rubbing up biology and he used to sneer at
the lecturer. He thought it funny to say hurtful things.”
“Why didn’t you kick him out?”
“Because, in a way, he helped to make the thrill. He seemed a sort of distorted genius. Besides, to be honest, we wanted to meet at his house. He lived with a wealthy uncle and there were
always refreshments and drinks.”
The marble pillars and gilded walls of the hotel lounge faded out as Ann thought of the last session in the tower-room. She remembered the roaring wind and the trails of ivy which tapped on the
window-panes.
“We’ll hold a reunion here, seven years from to-night,” declared Richard. “By then, my old uncle should be hanged and I shall be lord of the manor. Possibly one of you
may be successful, and damned, but I promise the rest of you jobs. Something in the Hercules tradition.”
“I bar elephant-stables,” said one of them. “Otherwise, count me in. Already I feel a man with a future.”
Of course it was Stephen who spoke—Stephen who was merely amused by Richard and whose laughter could extract the sting from the most envenomed remark.
3
As Ann lapsed into silence, the Manchester man’s interest deepened into a vague sense of responsibility. The hotel was large, central, and gave excellent value. It was
termed “cheap and popular,” so it attracted a mixed collection of guests, among whom were some cheap and popular gentlemen. The Manchester man had noticed that while some of these had
tried to get acquainted with Ann, she seemed unaware of them, as though she were preoccupied with an exclusive interest.
“Have you kept in touch with any of ‘THE SULLIED SOULS’?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “I’ve been abroad and lost touch. My father died at the end of October.”
“How very sad,” he said, shocked by so recent a loss.
“Not for him.” Her voice was level. “It was one of those illnesses you’re thankful to be out of. . . . At the time, it seemed impossible to keep my date. Every one told
me so. But I went on trying and haunting agencies and bribing people. And then, almost at the last moment, I got a cancellation in an air-liner. A palmist had told the man there would be a terrible
accident.”
“So you’re not superstitious?”
“But I am. I was expecting the crash, all the way, but I just hoped I might be lucky.”
“Used to flying, I suppose?”
“No, it was my first trip. It was awful. Whenever we dropped, I left my stomach behind me, up in the air. . . . But it was worth it for it was quick. I made London with time in
hand.”
Again the Manchester man wondered what object had exacted such furious drive and fixity of purpose. Then he calculated the girl’s age as twenty-three while he counted the number of the
“Sullied Souls.”
“You’ve mentioned five names,” he said casually. “You make six. Wasn’t there a seventh member of your club?”
“Yes. Stephen.”
The radiance of her face told the Manchester man why she had flown to England.
“Stephen was wonderful,” she declared. “He had everything. And he gave out all he had.”
Then she looked at her watch, pressed out her cigarette and began to collect her belongings.
“Nearly time to dress,” she said in a different voice. “I’ve been boring you but you asked for it. I thought talking about it would help me to realise it, but I
can’t. I can’t believe that in a short time we shall all be together again, after seven years.”
“Don’t go,” urged the Manchester man. “Wait for the postscript.”
His kindly face had grown grave as he fumbled for words.
“Suppose—Are you sure the others will remember the date?”
“Of course.” Her voice was confident. “They couldn’t forget.”
“Well, my dear, I’m John Blunt. And I’m a grandfather. Will you take some advice from an old-stager? Just ring up this Richard and make sure that it is a date. Remember,
you’re not used to the black-out.”
Ann’s face was thoughtful as she considered the advice.
“I can’t ring up,” she said. “It’s unlikely that Richard would answer the phone and I can’t leave a message. No one must know of our meetings. Secrecy was one
of our vows.”
“Hum. What’s the address?”
“Ganges, Yellow-forge, Surrey. The house is right out in the country, at the end of the Tube. A local bus passes the gates.”
While the Manchester man was jotting down the details, he asked another question.
“What time do you expect to be back?”
“Not much later than one-thirty. We used to catch the last train.”
“Well, I warn you, if you don’t show up, I shall make inquiries about you. I don’t like to see a young girl running risks.”
“What risk?”
“The risk of a big disappointment, to begin with. You’ve not seen these folks for years. They’re bound to be changed and you may be disillusioned.”
“I know. . . . But it’s my chance. I’ve got to get in touch with someone again. This is the only way.”
Pushing back her chair, Ann rose from the table.
“Good-bye,” she said. “Thank you for everything.”
The Manchester man watched her progress through the lounge. She seemed to steer a way amid the crowd by instinct, for she looked ahead as though she were seeing one face only, smiling at her at
the end of a long road.
He grunted and then slumped back in his chair as he began to revise his engagement list. Presently he was joined by his wife—a massive woman with a pleasant face. She had accompanied him
to London for the trip and also to keep an eye upon him.
According to custom, he told her dutifully about his promise to Ann. His story got the usual reception, while she hid her pride in his unselfish character.
“Just like you, Will. Even more daft than usual. I’ve no patience with headstrong girls who run into scrapes and expect other people to get them out. You’ve a heavy day
to-morrow and you need the sleep you can get. You might consider you owe your loyalty to me and the girls. Besides what you propose is utterly useless.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because if she runs into danger, by the time you could take any sort of action, it would be too late to save her.”
4
Ann’s heart beat fast as she rose in the lift up to the fifth floor. It was difficult to believe that somewhere in the blackness of the countryside was the dark pile of
Ganges—the focal point for six sentimental pilgrims. Her search through a postal directory had established its existence and also the fact that its owner was still Sir Benjamin Watson.
“No stable jobs for us,” she chuckled. “I’m glad Richard has not cashed-in.”
When she reached her room, it was still too early to start, so she lay on her bed and smoked while she recalled the journey out to Ganges. The Sullied Souls always met at Piccadilly Circus
Underground Station, where—after a race down the escalators—they crowded into the first train. Every one talked and nobody listened as they shouted across the carriage, swaying from
straphangers and treading on the toes of other passengers.
Afterwards came the interlude of the bus ride through dark lonely country lanes—so dimly visible in the rush of light from their window, that they seemed to be on a ship, ploughing through
cold still waters in search of adventure.
High up in her hotel room, Ann watched the smoke curling from her cigarette as she thought of her companions. All had one thing in common—the name of an English king or queen. Isabella was
doubly royal, since her first name was “Mary.”
“Stephen, Richard, Victoria, Ann, Isabella, James and John,” recited Ann.
James was pale, rather fleshy and smooth-haired. He wore thick glasses and in spite of his youth, his clothes suggested a prosperous professional man. Victoria had an oval expressionless face,
black almond eyes and a straight fringe. Her hands were strong with square-tipped fingers which repelled Ann because of Victoria’s passion for dissection.
These were the two students who always got the highest marks in examinations, but Ann credited them only with brains which could register degrees like a gas-cooker. Their useful glow was
incomparable with the brilliant fire of other Souls. She regarded Isabella as a genius, even while she chose perversely to concentrate on the development of her personality.
She reminded Ann of a picture she had seen of a fatal light which lured benighted travellers into a bog. Behind the flame was lightly sketched a face of unearthly beauty and allure. Isabella had
similar delicate features—the same fastidious lips and elfin gleam in her eyes. She was provocative, impersonal and elusive—attracting masculine homage only to reject it.
John was her opposite number—an arrogant golden youth, fair, fascinating and unstable. He assumed the devilry of a Mayfair playboy and dissipated his talents in versatility; but Ann was
too dazzled by his personality to be critical. In her deep humility, she worshipped both John and Isabella with the gaping admiration of a tourist in a hall of immortal statues. She expected no
notice from them and she received none, but their indifference could not hurt her because she was deeply in love with Stephen.
At the age of sixteen, she concentrated upon him the force of a strong and steadfast nature. Sitting silent at the meetings, she used to watch his face and treasure his words. She retained vivid
memories of the way his hair grew and the clean-cut corners of his mouth. Unhappily, she felt so sure that he must be in her life forever, that she never dreamed of any parting.
The news of the family departure to Burma left her stunned with shock. At the time, she was too bewildered with the rush and too modest and doubtful of his interest in her, even to write him a
note of farewell. Her only consolation was the prospect of her return to England and the hope of meeting him again.
As years passed and she remained in exile, she tried to obtain his address, only to meet with repeated disappointments. Letter after letter returned to her with a faithful instinct which
rivalled her own loyalty. But whenever she felt loneliest, she looked at the ringed figures in her calendar. . . . Every thought and every action led up to a date.
And that date was to-night.
5
She jumped off her bed, drew a fur coat over her suit and pulled a discouraging little hat—sold to her as the latest fashion—over one eye. A few minutes later she
was on her way to the reunion, sinking downward in the lift and pushing through the crowded vestibule. She carried a gas-mask and a pocket-torch, but in spite of their reminds of war conditions,
she had not realised the completeness of the black-out.
When she had passed through the revolving-doors, the light gradually dimmed until she swung round to face a wall of darkness. While her eyes were still dazzled from the illumination of the
lounge, it seemed an absolute eclipse. Presently, however, she distinguished faint gleams from passing traffic and circles mottling the pavement, thrown downward by electric torches. She could see
no pedestrians while she heard voices and footsteps, as though the city were inhabited by an invisible race; but as she lingered in the entrance, she collided with a solid body.
Someone wished to enter the hotel. Stepping aside, she stared before her, when she became aware gradually of blurred shapes passing by. They were so dim and formless that they suggested
survivors from a prehistoric race, groping in their eternal midnight. But as her eyes adapted themselves to the black-out the scene became more normal.
As she watched it she had a sense of being cheated. When she had looked forward to this moment, she had visualised a pre-war London—the brilliant street lights, the changing colours of
advertisement signs and the glowing façades of theatres and cinemas. It was a keen disappointment and made her apprehensive of the future.
“I expect they are all waiting for me in the Underground,” she thought hopefully.
The station was only a few yards from the hotel and she crossed the narrow street in a reckless rush. As she was stumbling down the steps of the nearest entrance she saw the light of the
booking-hall around the corner, as though in fulfilment of her dreams. Instantly the years were forgotten and it seemed only yesterday that she hurried down the subway in her eagerness to meet her
companions.
Breaking into a run, she burst into the hall, expecting to hear her name called by a familiar voice. When no one claimed her, she paused to look around her. After years spent in solitude, she
got an impression of confusion and haste. Every one appeared to be in a hurry to get home. On that evening, there were only a few loiterers and there seemed to be no friendly reunions.
Standing in their usual place she looked at the clock.
“It’s the time we always met,” she reflected. “I’d better stay put.”
As the minutes passed, she grew too impatient to stand and watch the constant stream of passengers, so she went in search of the others. After she had completed the round of the booking-hall
without meeting any one who resembled a Sullied Soul, she felt chilled with fresh disappointment.
“Perhaps we’ve passed without recognising each other,” she thought. “I wonder if I’ve changed much.”
She tried to stare impersonally into a strip of mirror at the back of a shop window. It reflected a tall slender girl, wearing a closely-fitting nigger-brown suit under an open fur coat. Her
dark hair waved to her shoulders and her eyes glowed with excitement in a pale anxious face.
“Actually I look younger,” she decided. “It’s the short skirt and the kid hair style. I’ve lost weight too. But really there’s nothing to it. I ought to
recognise them.”
She told herself that in the course of seven years, no one would grow bald or acquire a stomach of the first magnitude. A girl might change the colour of her hair or a man might grow a beard,
but the salient features would remain. She was trying to pierce problematic disguises when she noticed that the hands of the clock pointed to a quarter to seven.
It was the accustomed signal to wait no longer for stragglers but to dash down to the train. Since she had committed herself to a time-table which covered the hours of eight to twelve, it was
. . .
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
The Man Who Loved Lions
Ethel Lina White
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved
