Chapter Nine
IE lvira Blake looked up at the sky, noted¹ that it was a fine morning and went into a telephone box. She dialledBridget’s number in Onslow Square. Satisfied by the response, she said:
“Hallo? Bridget?”
“Oh Elvira, is that you?” Bridget’s voice sounded agitated².
“Yes. Has everything been all right?”
“Oh no. It’s been awful. Your cousin, Mrs. Melford, rang up Mummy yesterday afternoon.”
“What, about me?”
“Yes. I thought I’d done it so well when I rang her up at lunchtime. But it seems she got worried about your teeth.
Thought there might be something really wrong with them. Abscesses or something. So she rang up the dentist herselfand found, of course, that you’d never been there at all. So then she rang up Mummy and unfortunately Mummy wasright there by the telephone. So I couldn’t get there first. And naturally Mummy said she didn’t know anything aboutit, and that you certainly weren’t staying here. I didn’t know what to do.”
“What did you do?”
“Pretended I knew nothing about it. I did say that I thought you’d said something about going to see some friendsat Wimbledon.”
“Why Wimbledon?”
“It was the first place came into my head.”
Elvira sighed. “Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to cook up something. An old governess, perhaps, who lives atWimbledon. All this fussing does make things so complicated. I hope Cousin Mildred doesn’t make a real fool ofherself and ring up the police or something like that.”
“Are you going down there now?”
“Not till this evening. I’ve got a lot to do first.”
“You got to Ireland. Was it—all right?”
“I found out what I wanted to know.”
“You sound—sort of grim.”
“I’m feeling grim.”
“Can’t I help you, Elvira? Do anything?”
“Nobody can help me really…It’s a thing I have to do myself. I hoped something wasn’t true, but it is true. I don’tknow quite what to do about it.”
“Are you in danger, Elvira?”
“Don’t be melodramatic, Bridget. I’ll have to be careful, that’s all. I’ll have to be very careful.”
“Then you are in danger.”
Elvira said after a moment’s pause, “I expect I’m just imagining things, that’s all.”
“Elvira, what are you going to do about that

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