11: Celia, One Other, And May
THE RATHER UNTIDY, but evidently good-natured and probably over-worked maid, whom Gees had heard the rector mention as Bessie, admitted that Mr. Perivale was in, but she didn’t know whether he could see anybody. If he’d wait, she’d see, and with that she departed, leaving him on the doorstep but not, he reflected, closing the door on him.
At the foot of the stairs, though, she met Celia Perivale, emerging from somewhere at the back with a thermos flask in her hand. They stopped for inaudible exchanges, and then Bessie went to the back of the house instead of up the staircase, and Celia advanced to face Gees.
“Do come in, Mr. Green,” she invited. “Bessie tells me you asked to see my father, but if I can do anything or tell you anything you want to know— Satu
