Something Light (28 page)
Authors: Margery Sharp
“How long would it take?” she asked anxiously.
“Say a year to eighteen months.”
“Then I'm sorry, but I can't wait,” said Louisa.â“I don't mean I can't
wait,”
she added hastily, “I mean that any job, anywhere, if I can find one, just now I'd have to jump at. Even in Australia as an Assisted Immigrant. At Broydon,” confessed Louisa, “I was just putting on the successful woman act.â
You
thought I was successful, didn't you?” she asked wistfully.
“Indeed I did,” said Mr. McAndrew. “O my dear lass!”
The thread of her thought momentarily brokenâ
“You called me that before,” said Louisa uncertainly.
“Let it pass,” said Mr. McAndrew. “Though you might try my own given name of Andrew.”
“Didn't your mother call you
Andy?”
“She did not.âNor am I seeking a mother,” stated Andrew McAndrew. “In my view, the man's part is to provide and cherish, not be taken care of like a bairn.âD'you mean you're in any real financial difficulty?”
Louisa put it as plainly as she could.
“Well, if I don't pay some rent pretty soon, and if I do I don't see how I'm to eat, I'll probably be sleeping on a park bench.”
“Are you telling me you owe for
rent?”
demanded Mr. McAndrew incredulously.
“Aye,” said Louisa. “And you should see the dairy bill.”
It wasn't the stuffed pike he now regarded, nor the broadsheet about a murder, but Louisa's chrysanthemum head.âRather drooping, like a chrysanthemum under rain. Louisa didn't consciously droop, she was just very tired; but at the same time the thought washed over her, in a warm relaxing tide, that before a man so prepared to provide and cherish it didn't matter whether she drooped or not. In fact, she slightly revived.
“You're putting me in a very awkward position,” complained Mr. McAndrew.
“It was your idea,” pointed out Louisa.
“Might you not hold on for just a couple of months?”
“Well, I dare say I could borrow from old Freddy,” offered Louisa.
“Don't speak merely to irritate me,” said Mr. McAndrew. “Can't you see that what I'm being driven up to is a Special License?”
Louisa sat back in his overcoat and let him worry it out. At last, she was being taken charge ofâand how gladly! Only because it wasn't in her nature to be unhelpfulâ
“O my dear lad!” breathed Louisa tenderly. “O my dear lad!”
About the Author
Margery Sharp (1905â1991) is renowned for her sparkling wit and insight into human nature, which are liberally displayed in her critically acclaimed social comedies of class and manners. Born in Yorkshire, England, she wrote pieces for
Punch
magazine after attending college and art school. In 1930, she published her first novel,
Rhododendron Pie
, and in 1938, she married Maj. Geoffrey Castle. Sharp wrote twenty-six novels, three of which,
Britannia Mews
,
Cluny Brown
, and
The Nutmeg Tree
, were made into feature films, and fourteen children's books, including
The Rescuers
, which was adapted into two Disney animated films.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1960 by Margery Sharp
Cover design by Mimi Bark
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3433-3
This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
180 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038
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