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Contents (80)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. ACTING ON IMPULSE
  3. CONTENTS
  4. INTRODUCTION
  5. “A PROPOSAL TO CICELY”
  6. INTRODUCTION
  7. A PROPOSAL TO CICELY
  8. THE END
  9. READING “A PROPOSAL TO CICELY”
  10. “THE LITTLE LADY”
  11. INTRODUCTION
  12. THE LITTLE LADY
  13. I.
  14. II.
  15. III.
  16. THE END
  17. READING “THE LITTLE LADY”
  18. “LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”
  19. INTRODUCTION
  20. LINCKES’ GREAT CASE
  21. I.
  22. II.
  23. III.
  24. IV.
  25. V.
  26. VI.
  27. VII.
  28. THE END
  29. READING “LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”
  30. “THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST”
  31. INTRODUCTION
  32. THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST
  33. THE END
  34. READING “THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST”
  35. “ACTING ON IMPULSE”
  36. INTRODUCTION
  37. ACTING ON IMPULSE
  38. I.
  39. II.
  40. III.
  41. IV.
  42. THE END
  43. READING “ACTING ON IMPULSE”
  44. “WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?”
  45. INTRODUCTION
  46. WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?
  47. THE END
  48. READING “WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?”
  49. “THE CHINESE SHAWL”
  50. INTRODUCTION
  51. CONT
  52. THE CHINESE SHAWL
  53. I.
  54. II.
  55. III.
  56. IV.
  57. V.
  58. VI.
  59. VII.
  60. VIII.
  61. THE END
  62. READING “THE CHINESE SHAWL”
  63. “THE OLD MAID”
  64. INTRODUCTION
  65. THE OLD MAID
  66. THE END
  67. READING “THE OLD MAID”
  68. “LOVE”
  69. INTRODUCTION
  70. LOVE
  71. I.
  72. II.
  73. III.
  74. THE END
  75. READING “LOVE”
  76. THE SEARCH FOR “ON SUCH A NIGHT”
  77. GEORGETTE HEYER’S BIBLIOGRAPHY
  78. FURTHER READING
  79. COMING SOON!
  80. OCTOBER 29, 2019

HOW she managed to keep out of his sight she never afterwards knew. Somehow or other she did it, and when she and Malcolm at last left the hall Bill was nowhere to be seen.

“Jolly good show, wasn’t it?” said Malcolm. “I do hope you enjoyed it!”

“Ever and ever so much!” she answered mendaciously.

V.

IT was the third time the advertisement had been in the newspaper. It headed the Agony Column, and was imperative:

“Mary N. Communicate your address at once, dear. Bill C.”

Mary N. was to write to Box No. 3175.

Mary’s eyes were wet as she read the advertisement.

“Dear quixotic Bill,” she murmured. “He’ll—get over it—and be glad of his—escape.”

“What did you say?” inquired Janet, looking up from her correspondence. She was wearing a sapphire ring on her third finger, which had been placed there three days ago by an adoring, many-times-repulsed young man. Mary felt unreasonably jealous of her happiness.

“I didn't say anything,” she replied with dignity. “I’ve got a half-holiday tomorrow, and I’m going to take the Chinese shawl to a shop I know of and sell it.”

Janet let fall her letters.

“You’re not?”

“Yes, I am. I'm sick of it; and I want some money badly.”

“I don’t know how you can bear to part with it! I’ve got a sort of feeling about it—I don’t know, almost as though it would bring you luck.”

“Luck!” ejaculated Mary. “You’re wrong. Anyway, I’m going to sell it.”

Accordingly she set off next afternoon with the shawl tied up in a brown-paper parcel in search of a possible buyer.

It was a long time before she could make up her mind to enter a shop, and when at last she summoned up enough courage to do so, she was met with a chilly refusal to buy. Yes, the shawl was undoubtedly lovely, but Simpkins and Jones did not buy second-hand goods.

The same answer was waiting for her everywhere. Dispirited, Mary went home. The impossible crimson birds embroidered on the shawl seemed to regard her with derisive eyes.

“I shall advertise it,” said Mary. “Horrid thing.”

She spent her shillings in advertisements, and still the shawl remained unsold. The only people who answered her advertisements wanted to buy the shawl at half the price she asked for it. Mary threw their letters into the fire. It seemed as though fate were willing her to keep her aunt’s gift.

But at last a belated offer to buy arrived, accompanied by a request that Mary would send the shawl first on approval.

“Aha!” said Mary. “It is going to be sold after all!”

Mary sent the shawl to the prospective buyer, and in due course received a wad of notes in return. Mrs. Mellowe was delighted with her purchase.

“Well—well—I’ve sold it,” said Mary.

“You’re sorry now, I reckon,” Janet told her.

“I am not. Only—no, I’m not sorry. I’m glad.”

VI.

MEANWHILE Corkran, in despair, had enlisted a detective on his side. After what Netta Chalmer had told him of Mary's misfortune, and realising that she had slipped through his fingers, he felt that, whatever happened, and no matter what the cost might be, Mary was to be run to earth.