Page:The strange experiences of Tina Malone.djvu/29

Rh Felton," she said one day. "I want to hear them talk politics."

"Well, I'll ask her to tea," I said.

"And then you can all come down to me for the evening," she said.

Alice and Naomi were old friends who had had a tiff and I had patched it up. The stitches were not of the firmest and I knew why her wish to bring the two politicians together had gone no further than a suggestion for me to carry out the deed by an invitation.

So we agreed. She would write to Dr. Felton and I to Alice Griffiths.

Alice wrote to say that she would be very glad to come and I fussed about and prepared some puddings and things the night before.

I woke in the middle of the night—it must have been towards morning, and felt as if I could not bear to meet that man. He was a doctor who worked in laboratories and I had always to shut down a thought of victimised animals when I heard of him. I hated the thought of shaking hands with him.

I jumped out of bed and wrote a letter to Naomi saying that I would not go down to her rooms but would send Alice down after tea. I slipped the note under her door. I dashed off the letter and said what I felt about Dr. Felton because I knew she took dislikes to people herself and would understand. I said, too, I felt I must go away if she kept the quarrel up any longer. I did not know what I had done that deserved such treatment and that I was tired of the old rubbish about vibrations. I wrote affectionately, hoping that she would get back to her old self.

I went down later with my rubbish-tin and looked in at her door, feeling shy but sure that the wall must be down between us.

She looked daggers at me.

"Did you get my letter?" I asked with a little hesitation.

"Tina Malone," she said, "I can't understand how you can write me such a letter."

She stood up her tallest, and there was a fierce look in her eyes.

"Why?" I asked, utterly taken aback by this reception of what I had merely meant for a letter of affection.

"An insult to a friend of mine."

"But not to you, Naomi."

"You said you hated me for having let you meet him."

"I didn't," I cried impetuously. "It was not meant at you at all. I only have aversions to people sometimes. I know you have been different to me ever since we had that little tiff, and I think it's silly not to make up."