Twelve
They did come over. None of them stayed very long. Not that time, not ona first visit. They came over to have a look at me. I found them difficult tounderstand because of course they were all Americans. They were typeswith which I was not well acquainted. Some of them were pleasantenough. Uncle Frank, for instance. I agreed with Greta about him. Iwouldn’t have trusted him a yard. I had come across the same type in Eng-land. He was a big man with a bit of a paunch and pouches¹ under his eyesthat gave him a dissipated look which was not far from the truth, I ima-gine. He had an eye for women, I thought, and even more of an eye for themain chance. He borrowed money from me once or twice, quite smallamounts, just, as it were, something to tide him over for a day or two. Ithought it was not so much that he needed the money but he wanted totest me out, to see if I lent money easily. It was rather worrying because Iwasn’t sure which was the best way to take it. Would it have been betterto refuse point blank and let him know I was a skinflint or was it better toassume an appearance of careless generosity², which I was very far fromfeeling? To hell with Uncle Frank, I thought.
Cora, Ellie’s stepmother, was the one that interested me most. She was awoman of about forty, well turned out with tinted³ hair and a rather gush-ing manner. She was all sweetness to Ellie.
“You mustn’t mind those letters I wrote you, Ellie,” she said. “You mustadmit that it came as a terrible shock, your marrying like that. So secretly.
But of course I know it was Greta who put you up to it, doing it that way.”
“You mustn’t blame Greta,” said Ellie. “I didn’t mean to upset you all somuch. I just thought that—well, the less fuss—”
“Well, of course, Ellie dear, you have something there. All the men ofbusiness were simply livid. Stanford Lloyd and Andrew Lippincott. I sup-pose they thought everyone would blame them for not looking after youbetter. And of course they’d no idea what Mike would be like. They didn’trealize how charming he was going to be. I didn’t myself.”
She smiled across at me, a very sweet smile and one of the falsest onesI’d ever seen! I thought to myself that if ever a woman hated a man, it wasCora who hated me. I thought her sweetness to Ellie was understandableenough. Andrew Lippincott had gone back to America and had, no doubt,given her a few words of caution. Ellie was selling some of her property inAmerica, since she herself had definitely

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