The Doll (16 page)
Authors: Daphne Du Maurier
‘If you’d only met me ten years ago,’ I used to say to him, ‘the pair of us wouldn’t be sitting here now.’
‘You’re dead right,’ he agreed. ‘I’d be in the South Sea Islands.’
He liked to pretend, you see, that all he wanted really was a quiet life.
‘No,’ I told him, ‘you’d be Prime Minister. And I’d be entertaining at Number 10. It makes my blood boil when I see how you let the others pick all the plum positions. You want someone to stick up for you, and the person who ought to do it spends her time gossiping with a lot of grooms.’
I really began to wonder whether the future of the United Kingdom would be safe in his hands after all. There were one or two Labour men who looked as if they had more backbone, and they had more money too. I never had a penny out of Edward – not that I’d have taken anything if he had offered it to me – but I did get rather tired of the framed photographs of horses which he sent me from Warwickshire every Christmas.
No, love stories don’t have a happy ending. Not in real life. Mine finished with a bang, and when I say bang, I mean it.
The crisis came when Parliament dissolved at the end of the summer recess, and I was waiting as usual in a taxi in Parliament Square to pick up Edward and take him home. That was another thing – he was getting so absentminded that sometimes he went straight home to his own house unless I caught him first. To my horror, I saw him come out of the Lords and make a dive into a car that was drawn up alongside the pavement. The car shot off before I could take its number or tell the taxi to follow it. There was a woman in the back of the car – I could see her through the window.
Here we are, I said to myself. This is it! I went straight back home and put through a call to his wife in Warwickshire. It was only fair to tell her the truth, and that her husband was going out with another woman.
But do you know what happened? The servant who answered the telephone said that Lady Chichester had sold the house in Warwickshire and was up in London, and that she and Lord Chichester were going to Kenya for six months, perhaps a year. In fact, it was very possible that they were going to settle in Africa altogether. Lord Chichester was tired of political life, and he and Lady Chichester both wanted to shoot big game. As far as the servant knew, they were leaving at once, perhaps that very night.
I tried his London house. No reply. I tried every hotel I could think of, without result. I tried the airport and drew a similar blank.
Then it all came out. Lord and Lady Chichester had left for Kenya under assumed names. I read the whole thing in the morning paper. The reason given was that Lord Chichester had had another attack of shingles and wanted to get away from it all. Poor darling – I suppose he was drugged. Handcuffed, even. These things can happen to-day, in a free country. It’s a fearful reflection on the Conservative party, and at the next election I’m going to work for Labour. They at least are honest.
Meanwhile, here I am on my own again, with a broken heart. I did everything for Edward Chichester, just as I did for Kenneth, and what did I get out of it? Nothing but ingratitude. I don’t suppose I shall ever hear from him again – she’ll see to that. If I do, it’ll be a buffalo’s head on a Christmas card, instead of a chestnut mare.
What I want to know is this: where have I gone wrong in life? Why is it that no matter how kind I am to people, how truly generous, it never seems to pay dividends? From start to finish I’ve put myself last and the happiness of others first. And yet, when I sit alone now, in the evenings, I seem to see faces around me, Father, Mother, Aunt Madge, Kenneth, Edward, even poor Vemon Miles, and their expressions aren’t kind at all but somehow hunted. It’s as if they want to be rid of me. They can’t bear to be shadows. They’d like to get out of my memory and my life. Or is it that I want to be rid of them? I really don’t know. It’s too much of a muddle.
My doctor says I live on my nerves, and he’s given me a bottle of sleeping pills. I keep them by my bed. But, do you know, I have the impression that he’s more worn out than I am. Yesterday, when I telephoned for another appointment, the voice at the other end said, ‘I’m sorry, Doctor Yardley is on holiday.’ But it wasn’t true. I recognised his voice. He was disguising it.
Why am I so unlucky and so unhappy?
What is it that I do?
The estate of Daphne du Maurier would like to thank Ann Willmore for her help in rediscovering some of the stories in this collection.
Daphne du Maurier
(1907-1989) has been called one of the great shapers of popular culture and the modern imagination. Among her more famous works are
The Scapegoat, Jamaica Inn, Rebecca
, and the short story
The Birds
, all of which were subsequently made into films, the latter three directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
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W
ith the exception of ‘The Limpet’, the stories in this collection were written very early in Daphne du Maurier’s career, from 1926-1932, although some weren’t published until years later.
‘East Wind’ was first published in the American edition of
The Rebecca Notebook
in 1980, but it can be found in du Maurier’s 1926 notebook in the archives at Exeter University. It was not included in the UK edition of
The Rebecca Notebook.
‘The Doll’ was first published in
The Editor Regrets
, a collection of short stories edited by George Joseph, published by Michael Joseph in 1937. Du Maurier refers to the story in her memoir
Myself When Young
, which dates it as having been written in 1928.
‘And Now to God the Father’ was the first story of du Maurier’s to be published. It was featured in the
Bystander
magazine in May 1929, just after her twenty-second birthday. The
Bystander
also published ‘A Difference of Temperament’ the following month.
‘And His Letters Grew Colder’ was first published in the USA in
Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan
in September 1931.
‘The Happy Valley’ was first published in the
Illustrated London News
in 1932.
‘Frustration’, ‘Piccadilly’, ‘Tame Cat’, ‘Maizie’, ‘Nothing Hurts for Long’ and ‘Week-End’ are from
Early Stories
, published in Great Britain by Todd in 1955. The stories in this collection were all first published in journals and magazines between the years of 1927-30.
‘The Limpet’ appeared in the American edition of
The Breaking Point
, published by Doubleday and Co. in 1959. It was not included in the UK edition.
Also by Daphne du Maurier and Other Works
Fiction
The Loving Spirit
I’ll Never Be Young Again
Julius
Jamaica Inn
Rebecca
Frenchman’s Creek
Hungry Hill
The King’s General
The Parasites
My Cousin Rachel
The Birds and Other Stories
The Scapegoat
The Breaking Point: Short Stories
Castle Dor
(with Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch)
The Flight of the Falcon
The House on the Strand
Don’t Look Now
Rule Britannia
The Rendezvous and Other Stories
Nonfiction
Gerald: A Portrait
The Du Mauriers
Mary Anne
The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë
The Glass-Blowers
Vanishing Cornwall
Golden Lads: A Story of Anthony Bacon, Francis, and Their Friends
The Winding Stair: Francis Bacon, His Rise and Fall
Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer
The
Rebecca
Notebook and Other Memories
Enchanted Cornwall
Cover design by Robin Bilardello
Cover photograph © Sasha/Getty Images
An edition of this collection was printed in Great Britain in 2011 by Virago Press.
THE DOLL
. Copyright © 2011 by Chichester Partnership. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
“And Now to God the Father” first published in Great Britain in
The Bystander
, May 1929.
“A Difference in Temperament” first published in Great Britain in
The Bystander
, June 1929.
“And His Letters Grew Colder” first published in the USA in
Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan,
September 1931.
“The Happy Valley” first published in Great Britain in the
Illustrated London News
, 1932.
“The Doll” from
The Editor Regrets
, edited by George Joseph, published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph in 1937.
“Frustration,” “Tame Cat,” “Mazie,” “Nothing Hurts for Long,” and “Week-End” from
Early Stories
, published in Great Britain by Todd in 1955.
“The Limpet” from
The Breaking Point
, published in the USA by Doubleday and Co. in 1959.
“East Wind” from
the Rebecca Notebook
, published in the USA by Doubleday and Co. in 1980.
FIRST HARPER PAPERBACK PUBLISHED 2011.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-0-06-208034-9
EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062080363
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