Chapter 2 The Black Arrow

Mrs Thomas Beresford replaced The Cuckoo Clock, by Mrs Molesworth,choosing a vacant place on the third shelf from the bottom. The MrsMolesworths were congregated¹ here together. Tuppence drew out TheTapestry Room and held it thoughtfully in her fingers. Or she might readFour Winds Farm. She couldn’t remember Four Winds Farm as well as shecould remember The Cuckoo Clock and The Tapestry² Room. Her fingerswandered…Tommy would be back soon.
She was getting on. Yes, surely she was getting on. If only she didn’t stopand pull out old favourites and read them. Very agreeable but it took a lotof time. And when Tommy asked her in the evening when he came homehow things were going and she said, ‘Oh very well now,’ she had to em-ploy a great deal of tact³ and finesse⁴ to prevent him from going upstairsand having a real look at how the bookshelves were progressing. It alltook a long time. Getting into a house always took a long time, muchlonger than one thought. And so many irritating people. Electricians, forinstance, who came and appeared to be displeased⁵ with what they haddone the last time they came and took up more large areas in the floorand, with cheerful faces, produced more pitfalls⁶ for the unwary housewifeto walk along and put a foot wrong and be rescued just in time by the un-seen electrician who was groping beneath the floor.
‘Sometimes,’ said Tuppence, ‘I really wish we hadn’t left Bartons Acre.’
‘Remember the dining-room,’ Tommy had said, ‘and remember those at-tics, and remember what happened to the garage. Nearly wrecked⁷ the car,you know it did.’
‘I suppose we could have had it patched up,’ said Tuppence.
‘No,’ said Tommy, ‘we’d have had to practically replace the damagedbuilding, or else we had to move. This is going to be a very nice housesome day. I’m quite sure of that. Anyway, there’s going to be room in it forall the things we want to do.’

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