Chapter 7
Sarah wondered very much whether Carol Boynton would keep her appointment that night.
On the whole she rather doubted it. She was afraid that Carol would have a sharp reaction after
her semi-confidences of the morning.
Nevertheless she made her preparations, slipping on a blue satin dressing-gown and getting out
her little spirit lamp and boiling up water.
She was just on the point of giving Carol up (it was after one o’clock) and going to bed, when
there was a tap on her door. She opened it and drew quickly back to let Carol come in.
The latter said breathlessly: ‘I was afraid you might have gone to bed…’
Sarah’s manner was carefully matter-of-fact.
‘Oh, no, I was waiting for you. Have some tea, will you? It’s real Lapsang Souchong.’
She brought over a cup. Carol had been nervous and uncertain of herself. Now she accepted the
cup and a biscuit and her manner became calmer.
‘This is rather fun,’ said Sarah, smiling.
Carol looked a little startled.
‘Yes,’ she said doubtfully. ‘Yes, I suppose it is.’
‘Rather like the midnight feasts we used to have at school,’ went on Sarah. ‘I suppose you didn’t
go to school?’
Carol shook her head.
‘No, we never left home. We had a governess—different governesses. They never stayed long.’
‘Did you never go away at all?’
‘No. We’ve lived always in the same house. This coming abroad is the first time I’ve ever been
away.’
Sarah said casually¹: ‘It must have been a great adventure.’
‘Oh, it was. It—it’s all been like a dream.’
‘What made your—your stepmother decide to come abroad?’
At the mention of Mrs Boynton’s name, Carol had flinched². Sarah said quickly:
‘You know, I’m by way of being a doctor. I’ve just taken my M.B. Your mother—or stepmother
rather—is very interesting to me—as a case, you know. I should say she was quite definitely a
pathological case.’
Carol stared. It was clearly a very unexpected point of view to her. Sarah had spoken as she had
with deliberate intent. She realized that to her family Mrs Boynton loomed⁴ as a kind of powerful
obscene

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