Зло под солнцем / Evil Under the Sun - стр. 24

“And it’ll go on like this. Day after day – month after month. I can’t bear it.”

Life stretched before her – endless – in a series of days darkened and poisoned by Arlena’s presence. She was childish enough still to have little sense of proportion. A year, to Linda, seemed like an eternity. A big dark burning wave of hatred against Arlena surged up in her mind. She thought:

“I’d like to kill her. Oh! I wish she’d die…”

She looked out above the mirror onto the sea below. This place was really rather fun. Or it could be fun. All those beaches and coves and queer little paths. Lots to explore. And places where one could go off by oneself and muck about. There were caves, too, so the Cowan boys had told her.

Linda thought: “If only Arlena would go away, I could enjoy myself.”

Her mind went back to the evening of their arrival. It had been exciting coming coming from the mainland. The tide had been up over the causeway. They had come in a boat. The hotel had looked exciting, unusual. And then on the terrace a tall dark woman had jumped up and said:

“Why, Kenneth!”

And her father, looking frightfully surprised, had exclaimed:

“Rosamund!”

Linda considered Rosamund Darnley severely and critically in the manner of youth. She decided that she approved of Rosamund. Rosamund, she thought, was sensible. And her hair grew nicely – as though it fitted her – most people’s hair didn’t fit them. And her clothes were nice. And she had a kind of funny amused face – as though it were amused at herself not at you. Rosamund had been nice to her, Linda. She hadn’t been gushing or said things. (Under the term of “saying things” Linda grouped a mass of miscellaneous dislikes.) And Rosamund hadn’t looked as though she thought Linda a fool. In fact she’d treated Linda as though she were a real human being. Linda so seldom felt like a real human being that she was deeply grateful when any one appeared to consider her one.

Father, too, had seemed pleased to see Miss Darnley. Funny – he’d looked quite different, all of a sudden. He’d looked – he’d looked – Linda puzzled it out – why, young, that was it! He’d laughed – a queer boyish laugh. Now Linda came to think of it, she’d very seldom heard him laugh. She felt puzzled. It was as though she’d got a glimpse of quite a different person.

She thought: “I wonder what Father was like when he was my age…”

But that was too difficult. She gave it up.

An idea flashed across her mind. What fun it would have been if they’d come here and found Miss Darnley here – just she and Father. A vista opened out just for a minute. Father, boyish and laughing. Miss Darnley, herself – and all the fun one could have on the island – bathing – caves – The blackness shut down again.