The Blue Castle, Part 9

Please enjoy this continued reading of "The Blue Castle", a delightful 1926 Canadian novel from author Lucy Maud Montgomery, best known for her 1908 book "Anne of Green Gables".

Follow along as we hear how Valancy Stirling's dull life as a 29-year-old "old maid" is transformed by a life-changing medical diagnosis and subsequent foray into the world of romance, in search of the man and "Blue Castle" of her dreams!

Transcript

Hello there.

Thank you so much for joining me for this ninth part of the story of the Blue Castle.

I wonder if you have found the playlists yet.

Do feel free to look up the playlist for the Blue Castle so that you can listen to the pieces in order and not have to keep trying to find the next one.

They're all in there together.

So,

The Blue Castle is a novel from 1926 by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery.

And let's take a moment here to have a nice deep exhale and really arrive here to this moment.

We can put aside any baggage from the day now.

Nowhere else we have to be.

Nothing else that we're going to be doing.

We can just relax,

Get comfortable and listen to the next part of the Blue Castle.

Chapter 20.

When Abel Gay paid for Lancy her first month's wages,

Which he did promptly in bills reeking with the odour of tobacco and whiskey,

But Lancy went into Deerwood and spent every cent of it.

She got a pretty green crepe dress with a girdle of crimson beads at a bargain sale,

A pair of silk stockings to match,

And a little crinkled green hat with a crimson rose in it.

She even bought a foolish little beribboned and belaced nightgown.

She passed the house on Elm Street twice,

But Lancy never even thought about it as home,

But saw no one.

No doubt her mother was sitting in the room this lovely June evening playing solitaire and cheating.

But Lancy knew that Mrs.

Frederick always cheated.

She never lost a game.

Most of the people that Lancy met looked at her seriously and passed her with a cool nod.

Nobody stopped to speak to her.

For Lancy put on her green dress when she got home,

Then she took it off again.

She felt so miserably undressed in its low neck and short sleeves,

And that low crimson girdle around the hips seemed positively indecent.

She hung it up in the closet,

Feeling flatly that she had wasted her money.

She would never have the courage to wear that dress.

John Foster's arraignment of fear had no power to stiffen her against this.

In this one thing,

Habit and custom were still all-powerful.

Yet she sighed as she went down to meet Barney Snaith in her old snuff-brown silk.

That green thing had been very becoming.

She had seen so much in her one ashamed glance.

Above it,

Her eyes had looked like odd brown jewels,

And the girdle had given her flat figure an entirely different appearance.

She wished she could have left it on.

But there were some things John Foster did not know.

Every Sunday evening,

For Lancy went to the little Free Methodist Church in a valley on the edge of Up Back,

A spireless little grey building among the pines,

With a few sunken graves and mossy gravestones in the small,

Paling-encircled,

Grass-grown square beside it.

She liked the minister who preached there.

He was so simple and sincere.

An old man who lived in Port Lawrence and came out by the lake in a little disappearing propeller boat to give a free service to the people of the small,

Stony farms back of the hills who would otherwise never have heard any gospel message.

She liked the simple service,

And the fervent singing.

She liked to sit by the open window and look out into the pine woods.

The congregation was always small.

The Free Methodists were few in number,

Poor,

And generally illiterate.

But for Lancy,

Loved those Sunday evenings.

For the first time in her life,

She liked going to church.

The rumour reached Dearwood that she had turned Free Methodist and sent Mrs Frederick into bed for a day.

The rumour reached Dearwood that she had turned Free Methodist and sent Mrs Frederick to bed for a day.

But for Lancy had not turned anything.

She went to the church because she liked it,

And because in some inexplicable way it did her good.

Old Mr Towers believed exactly what he preached,

And somehow it made a tremendous difference.

Oddly enough,

Roaring Abel disapproved of her going to the hill church as strongly as Mrs Frederick herself could have done.

He had no use for Free Methodists.

He was a Presbyterian.

But for Lancy went in spite of him.

We'll hear something worse than that about her soon,

Uncle Benjamin predicted gloomily.

They did.

For Lancy could not quite explain,

Even to herself,

Just why she wanted to go to that party.

It was a dance up back at Chidley Corners,

And dances at Chidley Corners were not as a rule the sort of assemblies where well-brought-up young ladies were found.

But Lancy knew it was coming off,

For roaring Abel had been engaged as one of the fiddlers.

But the idea of going had never occurred to her until roaring Abel himself broached it at supper.

You come with me to the dance,

He ordered.

It'll do you good.

Put some colour in your face.

You look piqued.

You want something to liven you up.

But Lancy found herself suddenly wanting to go.

She knew nothing at all of what dances at Chidley Corners were apt to be like.

Her idea of dances had been fashioned on the correct affairs that went by that name in Deerwood and Port Lawrence.

Of course,

She knew the Corners dance wouldn't be just like them.

Much more informal,

Of course.

But so much the more interesting.

Why shouldn't she go?

Sissy was in a week of apparent health and improvement.

She wouldn't mind staying alone in the least.

She entreated Valancy to go if she wanted to.

And Valancy did want to go.

She went to her room to dress.

A rage against the snuff-brown silk seized her.

Wear that to a party?

Never.

She pulled her green crepe from its hanger and put it on feverishly.

It was nonsense to feel so so naked just because her neck and arms were bare.

That was just her old maidishness.

She would not be ridden by it.

On went the dress.

The slippers.

It was the first time she had worn a pretty dress since the organdies of her early teens.

And they had never made her look like this.

If she only had a necklace or something,

She wouldn't feel so bare then.

She ran down to the garden.

There were clovers there,

Great crimson things growing in the long grass.

Valancy gathered handfuls of them and strung them on a cord.

Fastened above her neck,

They gave her the comfortable sensation of a collar and were oddly becoming.

Another circlet of them went around her hair,

Dressed in the low puffs that became her.

Excitement brought those faint pink stains to her face.

She flung on her coat and poured the little twisty hat over her hair.

You look so nice and different,

Dear,

Said Sissy,

Like a green moonbeam with a gleam of red in it,

If there could be such a thing.

Valancy stooped to kiss her.

I don't feel right about leaving you alone,

Sissy.

I'll be all right.

I feel better tonight than I have for a long while.

I've been feeling badly to see you sticking here so closely on my account.

I hope you'll have a nice time.

I never was at a party at the Corners,

But I used to go sometimes long ago to dances up back.

We always had good times.

And you needn't be afraid of Father being drunk tonight.

He never drinks when he engages to play for a party,

But there may be liquor.

What will you do if it gets rough?

Nobody would molest me.

Not seriously,

I suppose.

Father would see to that,

But it might be noisy and and unpleasant.

I won't mind.

I'm only going as a looker on.

I don't expect to dance.

I just want to see what a party up back is like.

I've never seen anything except decorous deerwood.

Sissy smiled rather dubiously.

She knew much better than Valancy what a party up back might be like if there should be liquor.

But again,

There mightn't be.

I hope you'll enjoy it,

Dear,

Enjoy it,

Dear,

She repeated.

Valancy enjoyed the drive there.

They went early,

For it was twelve miles to Chidley Corners,

And they had to go in Abel's old ragged top buggy.

The road was rough and rocky,

Like most Muskoka roads,

But full of the austere charm of northern woods.

It wound through beautiful purring pines that were ranks of enchantment in the June sunset,

And over the curious jade-green rivers of Muskoka,

Fringed by aspens that were always quivering with some supernal joy.

Roaring Abel was excellent company too.

He knew all the stories and legends of the wild,

Beautiful up back,

And he told them to Valancy as they drove along.

Valancy had several fits of inward laughter over what Uncle Benjamin and Aunt Wellington et al.

Would feel and think and say if they saw her driving with roaring Abel in that terrible buggy to a dance at Chidley Corners.

At first the dance was quiet enough,

And Valancy was amused and entertained.

She even danced twice herself,

With a couple of nice up back boys who danced beautifully and told her she did too.

Another compliment came her way,

Not a very subtle one perhaps,

But Valancy had had too few compliments in her life to be over nice on that point.

She overheard two of the up back young men talking about her in the dark lean-to behind her.

Know who that girl in green is?

Nope.

Guess she's from out front.

The port maybe?

Got a stylish look to her.

No beaut,

But cute looking,

I'll say.

Do you ever see such eyes?

The big room was decorated with pine and fir boughs and lighted by Chinese lanterns.

The floor was waxed and roaring Abel's fiddle purring under his skilled touch worked magic.

The up back girls were pretty and prettily dressed.

Valancy thought it the nicest party she had ever attended.

By eleven o'clock she had changed her mind.

A new crowd had arrived,

A crowd unmistakably drunk.

Whiskey began to circulate freely.

Very soon almost all the men were partly drunk.

Those in the porch and outside around the door began howling come all ye's and continued to howl them.

The room grew noisy and reeking.

Quarrels started up here and there.

Bad language and obscene songs were heard.

The girls swung rudely and the dancers became dishevelled and tawdry.

Valancy,

Alone in her corner,

Was feeling disgusted and repentant.

Why had she ever come to such a place?

Freedom and independence were all very well,

But one should not be a little fool.

She might have known what it would be like.

She might have taken warning from Sissy's guarded sentences.

Her head was aching.

She was sick of the whole thing.

But what could she do?

She must stay to the end.

Abel could not leave till then.

That would probably be not till three or four in the morning.

The new influx of boys had left the girls far in the minority and partners were scarce.

Valancy was pestered with invitations to dance.

She refused them all shortly and some of her refusals were not well taken.

There were muttered oaths and sullen looks.

Across the room she saw a group of the strangers talking together and glancing meaningly at her.

What were they plotting?

It was at this moment that she saw Barney Snaith looking in over the heads of the crowd at the doorway.

Valancy had two distinct convictions.

One was that she was quite safe now.

The other was that this was why she had wanted to come to the dance.

It had been such an absurd hope that she had not recognised it before,

But now she knew.

She had come because of the possibility that Barney might be there too.

She thought that perhaps she ought to be ashamed for this.

But she wasn't.

After her feeling of relief,

Her next feeling was one of annoyance with Barney for coming there unshaved.

Surely he might have enough self-respect to groom himself up decently when he went to a party.

There he was,

Bare-headed,

Bristly chinned,

In his old trousers and his blue homespun shirt,

Not even a coat.

Valancy could have shaken him in her anger.

No wonder people believed everything bad of him.

But she was not afraid any longer.

One of the whispering group left his comrades and came across the room to her.

Through the whirling couples that now filled it uncomfortably,

He was a tall,

He was a tall,

Broad-shouldered fellow,

Not ill-dressed or ill-looking,

But unmistakably half-drunk.

He asked Valancy to dance.

Valancy declined civilly.

His face turned livid.

He threw his arm about her and pulled her to him.

His hot,

Whiskied breath burnt her face.

We won't have fine lady heirs here,

My girl.

If you ain't too good to come here,

You ain't too good to dance with us.

Me and my pals have been watching you.

You've got to give us each a turn and a kiss to boot.

Valancy tried desperately and vainly to free herself.

She was being dragged out into the maze of shouting,

Stamping,

Yelling dancers.

The next moment,

The man who held her went staggering across the room from a neatly planted blow on the jaw,

Knocking down whirling couples as he went.

Valancy felt her arm grasped.

This way,

Quick,

Said Barney Snaith.

He swung her out through the open window behind them,

Vaulted lightly over the sill and caught her hand.

Quick,

We must run for it.

They'll be after us.

Valancy ran as she had never run before,

Clinging tight to Barney's hand,

Wondering why she did not drop dead in such a mad scamper.

Suppose she did.

What a scandal it would make for her poor people.

For the first time,

Valancy felt a little sorry for them.

Also,

She felt glad that she had escaped from that horrible row.

Also glad that she was holding tight to Barney's hand.

Her feelings were badly mixed and she had never had so many in such a brief time in her life.

They finally reached a quiet corner in the pine woods.

The pursuit had taken a different direction and the whoops and yells behind them were growing faint.

Valancy,

Out of breath,

With a crazily beating heart,

Collapsed on the trunk of a fallen pine.

Thanks,

She gasped.

What a goose you were to come to such a place,

Said Barney.

I didn't know it would be like this,

Protested Valancy.

You should have known.

Chiddly corners.

It was just a name to me.

Valancy knew Barney could not realise how ignorant she was of the regions up back.

She had lived in Deerwood all her life and of course he supposed she knew.

He didn't know how she had been brought up.

There was no use trying to explain.

When I drifted in at Abel's this evening and Sissy told me you'd come here,

I was amazed and downright scared.

Sissy told me she was worried about you but hadn't liked to say anything to dissuade you for fear you'd think she was thinking selfishly about herself.

So I came on up here instead of going to Deerwood.

Valancy felt a sudden delightful glow irradiating soul and body under the dark pines.

So he had actually come up to look after her.

As soon as they stop hunting for you,

We'll sneak around to the Muskoka Road.

I left Lady Jane down there.

I'll take you home.

I suppose you've had enough of your party?

Quite,

Said Valancy,

Meekly.

The first half of the way home,

Neither of them said anything.

It would not have been much use.

Lady Jane made so much noise they could not have heard each other.

Anyway,

Valancy did not feel conversationally inclined.

She was ashamed of the whole affair.

Ashamed of her folly in going,

Ashamed of being found in such a place by Barney Snaith.

By Barney Snaith,

Reputed jailbreaker,

Infidel,

Forger and defaulter.

Infidel,

Forger and defaulter.

Valancy's lips twitched in the darkness as she thought of it,

But she was ashamed.

And yet,

She was enjoying herself,

Was full of a strange exultation.

Bumping over that rough road beside Barney Snaith,

The big trees shot by them,

The tall melanes stood up along the road in stiff orderly ranks like companies of soldiers.

The thistles looked like drunken fairies or tipsy elves as their car lights passed over them.

This was the first time she had even been in a car.

After all,

She liked it.

She was not in the least afraid,

With Barney at the wheel.

Her spirits rose rapidly as they tore along.

She ceased to feel ashamed.

She ceased to feel anything,

Except that she was part of a comet,

Rushing gloriously through the night of space.

All at once,

Just where the pine woods frayed out to the scrub barrens,

Lady Jane became quiet.

Too quiet.

Lady Jane slowed down quietly and stopped.

Barney uttered an aghast exclamation,

Got out,

Investigated,

Came apologetically back.

I'm a doddering idiot.

Out of gas.

I knew I was short when I left home,

But I meant to fill up in Deerwood.

Then I forgot all about it,

In my hurry to get to the corners.

What can we do?

Asked for Lancy,

Coolly.

I don't know.

There's no gas nearer than Deerwood,

Nine miles away,

And I don't dare leave you here alone.

There are always tramps on this road,

And some of those crazy fools back at the corners may come straggling along presently.

There were boys there from the port.

As far as I can see,

The best thing to do is for us just to sit patiently here until some car comes along and lends us enough gas to get to Roaring Ables with.

Well,

What's the matter with that?

Said for Lancy.

We may have to sit here all night,

Said Barney.

I don't mind,

Said for Lancy.

Barney gave a short laugh.

If you don't,

I needn't.

I haven't any reputation to lose.

Nor I,

Said for Lancy,

Comfortably.

Chapter 21.

We'll just sit here,

Said Barney,

And if we think of anything worthwhile saying,

We'll say it.

Otherwise,

Not.

Don't imagine you're bound to talk to me.

John Foster says,

Quoted for Lancy,

If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable,

You and that person can be friends.

If you cannot,

Friends you'll never be,

And you need not waste time in trying.

Evidently,

John Foster says a sensible thing,

Once in a while,

Conceded Barney.

They sat in silence for a long while.

Little rabbits hopped across the road.

Once or twice,

An owl laughed out delightfully.

The road beyond them was fringed with the woven shadow lace of trees.

Away off to the southwest,

The sky was full of silvery little cirrus clouds,

Above the spot where Barney's island must be.

The Lancy was perfectly happy.

Some things dawn on you slowly.

Some things come by lightning flashes.

The Lancy had had a lightning flash.

She knew quite well now that she loved Barney.

Yesterday,

She had been all her own.

Now,

She was this man's.

Yet,

He had done nothing,

Said nothing.

He had not even looked at her as a woman,

But that didn't matter.

Nor did it matter what he was or what he had done.

She loved him without any reservations.

Everything in her went out wholly to him.

She had no wish to stifle or disown her love.

She seemed to be his so absolutely that thought apart from him,

Thought in which he did not predominate,

Was an impossibility.

She had realized,

Quite simply and fully,

That she loved him,

In the moment when he was leaning on the car door explaining that Lady Jane had no gas.

She had looked deep into his eyes in the moonlight and had known.

In just that infinitesimal space of time,

Everything was changed.

Old things passed away and all things became new.

She was no longer unimportant little old maid for Lancy Stirling.

She was a woman full of love and therefore rich and significant,

Justified to herself.

Life was no longer empty and futile and death could cheat her of nothing.

Love had cast out her last fear.

Love.

What a searing,

Torturing,

Intolerably sweet thing it was.

This possession of body,

Soul and mind,

With something at its core as fine and remote and purely spiritual as the tiny blue spark in the heart of the unbreakable diamond.

No dream had ever been like this.

She was no longer solitary.

She was one of a vast sisterhood.

All the women who had ever loved in the world.

Barney need never know it,

Though she would not in the least have minded his knowing,

But she knew it and it made a tremendous difference to her.

Just to love.

She did not ask to be loved.

It was rapture enough just to sit there beside him in silence,

Alone in the summer night,

In the white splendor of moonshine,

With the wind blowing down on them out of the pine woods.

She had always envied the wind,

So free,

Blowing where it listed,

Through the hills,

Over the lakes.

What a tang,

What a zip it had,

What a magic of adventure.

Balancy felt as if she had exchanged her shop-worn soul for a fresh one.

Fire new from the workshop of the gods.

As far back as she could look,

Life had been dull,

Colourless,

Savourless.

Now,

She had come to a little patch of violets,

Purple and fragrant,

Hers for the plucking.

No matter who or what had been in Barney's past,

No matter who or what might be in his future,

No one else could ever have this perfect hour.

She surrendered herself utterly to the charm of the moment.

Ever dream of ballooning?

Said Barney,

Suddenly.

No,

Said Valancy.

I do.

Often.

Dream of sailing through the clouds,

Seeing the glories of sunset,

Spending hours in the midst of a terrific storm,

With lightning playing above and below you,

Skimming above a silver cloud floor,

Under a full moon.

Wonderful.

It does sound so,

Said Valancy.

I've stayed on earth in my dreams.

She told him about her blue castle.

It was so easy to tell Barney things.

One felt he understood everything,

Even the things you didn't tell him.

And then she told him a little of her existence before she came to Roaring Ables.

She wanted him to see why she had gone to the dance up back.

You see,

I've never had any real life,

She said.

I've just breathed.

Every door has always been shut to me.

But you're still young,

Said Barney.

Oh,

I know.

Yes,

I'm still young.

But that's so different from young,

Said Valancy bitterly.

For a moment,

For a moment,

She was tempted to tell Barney why her years had nothing to do with her future.

But she did not.

She was not going to think of death tonight.

Though I never was really young,

She went on.

Until tonight,

She added in her heart.

I never had a life like other girls.

You couldn't understand.

Couldn't understand.

Why she had a desperate desire that Barney should know the worst about her.

I didn't even love my mother.

Isn't it awful that I don't love my mother?

Rather awful for her,

Said Barney dryly.

Oh,

She didn't know it.

She took my love for granted.

My love for granted.

And I wasn't any use or comfort to her or anybody.

I was just a vegetable.

And I got tired of it.

That's why I came to keep house for Mr.

Gay and look after Sissy.

And I suppose your people thought you'd gone mad.

They did.

And do.

Literally,

Said Valancy.

But it's a comfort to them.

They'd rather believe me mad than bad.

There's no other alternative.

But I've been living since I came to Mr.

Gay's.

It's been a delightful experience.

I suppose I'll pay for it when I have to go back.

But I'll have had it.

That's true,

Said Barney.

If you buy your experience,

It's your own.

So it's no matter how much you pay for it.

Somebody else's experience can never be yours.

Well,

It's a funny old world.

Do you think it really is old?

Asked Valancy dreamily.

I never believed that in June.

It seems so young tonight somehow.

In that quivering moonlight.

Like a young white girl waiting.

Moonlight here on the verge of up back is different from moonlight anywhere else,

Agreed Barney.

It always makes me feel so clean somehow.

Body and soul and of course the age of gold always comes back in spring.

It was ten o'clock now.

A dragon of black cloud ate up the moon.

The spring air grew chill.

Valancy shivered.

Barney reached back into the innards of Lady Jane and clawed up an old tobacco scented overcoat.

Put that on,

He ordered.

Don't you want it yourself?

Protested Valancy.

No,

I'm not going to have you catching cold on my hands.

Oh,

I won't catch cold.

I haven't had a cold since I came to Mr Gaze.

Though I've done the foolishest things.

It's funny too,

I used to have them all the time.

I feel so selfish taking your coat.

You've sneezed three times.

No use winding up your experience up back with gripe or pneumonia.

He pulled it up tight about her throat and buttoned it on her.

Valancy submitted with secret delight.

How nice it was to have someone look after you so.

She snuggled down into the tobacco-y folds and wished the night could last forever.

Ten minutes later,

A car swooped down on them from up back.

Barney sprang from Lady Jane and waved his hand.

The car came to a stop beside them.

Valancy saw Uncle Wellington and Olive Olive gazing at her in horror from it.

So Uncle Wellington had got a car.

And he must have been spending the evening up at Miss Starwest with Cousin Herbert.

Valancy almost laughed aloud at the expression on his face as he recognised her,

The pompous,

Bewiskered old humbug.

Can you let me have enough gas to take me to Dearwood?

Barney was asking politely,

But Uncle Wellington was not attending to him.

Valancy,

How came you here?

He said sternly.

By chance or God's grace,

Said Valancy.

With this jailbird at ten o'clock at night,

Said Uncle Wellington.

Valancy turned to Barney.

The moon had escaped from its dragon and in its light her eyes were full of deviltry.

Are you a jailbird?

Does it matter?

Said Barney,

Gleams of fun in his eyes.

Not to me.

I only asked out of curiosity,

Continued Valancy.

Then,

I won't tell you.

I never satisfy curiosity.

He turned to Uncle Wellington and his voice changed subtly.

Mr Stirling,

I asked you if you could let me have some gas.

If you can,

Well and good.

If not,

We are only delaying you unnecessarily.

Uncle Wellington was in a horrible dilemma to give gas to this shameless pair,

But not to give it to them,

To go away and leave them there in the Mestawis woods until daylight,

Daylight likely.

It was better to give it to them and let them get out of sight before anyone else saw them.

Got anything to get gas in?

He grunted surly.

Barney produced a two-gallon measure from Lady Jane.

The two men went to the rear of the Stirling car and began manipulating the tap.

Valancy stole sly glances at Olive over the collar of Barney's coat.

Olive was sitting grimly staring straight ahead with an outraged expression.

She did not mean to take any notice of Valancy.

Olive had her own secret reasons for feeling outraged.

Cecil had been in Deerwood lately and of course had heard all about Valancy.

He agreed that her mind was deranged and was exceedingly anxious to find out whence the derangement had been inherited.

It was a serious thing to have in the family,

A very serious thing.

One had to think of one's descendants.

She got it from the Wansparrows,

Said Olive positively.

There's nothing like that in the Stirlings,

Nothing.

I hope not,

I certainly hope not,

Cecil had responded dubiously.

But then,

To go out as a servant,

For that is what it practically amounts to.

Your cousin?

Poor Olive felt the implication.

The Port Lawrence Prices were not accustomed to ally themselves with families whose members worked out.

Valancy could not resist temptation.

She leant forward.

Olive,

Does it hurt?

Olive bit stiffly.

Does what hurt?

Looking like that.

For a moment,

Olive resolved she would take no further notice of Valancy.

Then,

Duty came uppermost.

She must not miss the opportunity.

Does,

She implored,

Leaning forward also,

Won't you come home?

Come home tonight?

Valancy yawned.

You sound like a revival meeting,

She said.

You really do.

If you will come back,

All will be forgiven.

Yes,

Said Olive eagerly.

Wouldn't it be splendid if she could induce the prodigal daughter to return?

We'll never cast it up to you.

Does,

There are nights when I cannot sleep for thinking of you and me having the time of my life,

Said Valancy,

Laughing.

Does,

I can't believe you're bad.

I've always said you couldn't be bad.

I don't believe I can be,

Said Valancy.

I'm afraid I'm hopelessly proper.

I've been sitting here for three hours with Barney Snaith and he hasn't even tried to kiss me.

I wouldn't have minded if he had,

Olive.

Valancy was still leaning forward.

Her little hat,

With its crimson rose,

Was tilted down over one eye.

Olive stared.

In the moonlight,

Valancy's eyes,

Valancy's smile,

What had happened to Valancy?

She looked not pretty.

Does couldn't be pretty,

But provocative,

Fascinating.

Yes,

Abominably so.

Olive drew back.

It was beneath her dignity to say more.

After all,

Valancy must be both mad and bad.

Thanks,

That's enough,

Said Barney behind the car.

Much obliged,

Mr.

Stirling.

Two gallons,

Seventy cents.

Thank you.

Uncle Wellington climbed foolishly and feebly into his car.

He wanted to give Snaith a piece of his mind,

But dared not.

Who knew what the creature might do if provoked?

No doubt he carried firearms.

Uncle Wellington looked indecisively at Valancy,

But Valancy had turned her back on him and was watching Barney pour the gas into Lady Jane's moor.

Drive on,

Said Olive decisively.

There's no use in waiting here.

Let me tell you what she said to me.

The little hussy,

The shameless little hussy,

Said Uncle Wellington.

Reviews

That sure could have gone sideways! Good thing Barney came along 🫠 thank you!🙏🏼❤️