1、Six people were thinking of Rosemary Barton who had died nearly a year ago.Book I - ROSEMARYWhat can I do to drive away remembrances from mine eyes? Chapter 1IRIS MARLEIris Marle was thinking about her sister, Rosemary.For nearly a year she had deliberately tried to put the thought of Rosemary away
2、from her. She hadnt wanted to remember. The blue cyanosed face, the convulsed clutching fingers.The contrast between that and the gay lovely Rosemary of the day before. Well, perhaps not exactly gay. She had had flu - she had been depressed, run down. All that had been brought out at the inquest. Ir
3、is herself had laid stress on it. It accounted, didnt it, for Rosemarys suicide?Once the inquest was over, Iris had deliberately tried to put the whole thing out of her mind. Of what good was remembrance? Forget it all! Forget the whole horrible business.But now, she realised, she had got to remembe
4、r. She had got to think back into the past. To remember carefully every slight unimportant seeming incident.That extraordinary interview with George last night necessitated remembrance. It had been so unexpected, so frightening. Wait - Had it been so unexpected? Hadnt there been indications beforeha
5、nd? Georges growing absorption, his absentmindedness, his unaccountable actions - his - well, queerness was the only word for it! All leading up to that moment last night when he had called her into the study and taken the letters from the drawer of the desk.So now there was no help for it. She had
6、got to think about Rosemary - to remember.Rosemary - her sister.With a shock Iris realised suddenly that it was the first time in her life she had ever thought about Rosemary. Thought about her, that is, objectively, as a person.She had always accepted Rosemary without thinking about her. You didnt
7、think about your mother or your father or your sister or your aunt. They just existed, unquestioned, in those relationships. You didnt think about them as people. You didnt ask yourself, even, what they were like.What had Rosemary been like? That might be very important now. A lot might depend upon
8、it. Iris cast her mind back. Herself and Rosemary as children. Rosemary had been the elder by six years.Glimpses of the past came back - brief flashes - short scenes. Herself as a small child eating bread and milk, and Rosemary, important in pig tails, doing lessons at a table.The seaside one summer
9、 - Iris envying Rosemary who was a big girl and could swim!Rosemary going to boarding school - coming home for the holidays. Then she herself at school, and Rosemary being finished in Paris. Schoolgirl Rosemary; clumsy, all arms and legs. Finished Rosemary coming back from Paris with a strange new f
10、rightening elegance, soft voiced, graceful, with a swaying undulating figure, with red gold chestnut hair and big black fringed dark blue eyes. A disturbing beautiful creature - grown up - in a different world!From then on they had seen very little of each other, the six-year gap had been at its wid
11、est.Iris had been still at school. Rosemary in the full swing of a season. Even when Iris came home, the gap remained. Rosemarys life was one of late mornings in bed, fork luncheons with other debutantes, dances most evenings of the week. Iris had been in the schoolroom with Mademoiselle, had gone f
12、or walks in the Park, had had supper at nine oclock and gone to bed at ten. The intercourse between the sisters had been limited to such brief interchanges as:Hello, Iris, telephone for a taxi for me, theres a lamb, Im going to be devastatingly late, or I dont like that new frock, Rosemary. It doesn
13、t suit you. Its all bunch and fuss.Then had come Rosemarys engagement to George Barton. Excitement, shopping, streams of parcels, bridesmaids dresses. The wedding. Walking up the aisles behind Rosemary, hearing whispers:What a beautiful bride she makes.Why had Rosemary married George? Even at the ti
14、me Iris had been vaguely surprised. There had been so many exciting young men, ringing Rosemary up, taking her out. Why choose George, fifteen years older than herself, kindly, pleasant, but definitely dull?George was well off, but it wasnt money. Rosemary had her own money, a great deal of it.Uncle
15、 Pauls money.Iris searched her mind carefully, seeking to differentiate between what she knew now and what she had known then: Uncle Paul, for instance?He wasnt really an uncle, she had always known that. Without ever having been definitely told them she knew certain facts. Paul Bennett had been in
16、love with their mother. She had preferred another and a poorer man. Paul Bennett had taken his defeat in a romantic spirit. He had remained the family friend, adopted an attitude of romantic platonic devotion. He had become Uncle Paul, had stood godfather to the first-born child, Rosemary. When he d
17、ied, it was found that he had left his entire fortune to his little god-daughter, then a child of thirteen. Rosemary, besides her beauty, had been an heiress. And she had married nice dull George Barton.Why? Iris had wondered then. She wondered now. Iris didnt believe that Rosemary had ever been in
18、love with him.But she had seemed very happy with him and she had been fond of him - yes, definitely fond of him. Iris had good opportunities for knowing, for a year after the marriage, their mother, lovely delicate Viola Marle, had died, and Iris, a girl of seventeen, had gone to live with Rosemary
19、Barton and her husband.A girl of seventeen. Iris pondered over the picture of herself. What had she been like? What had she felt, thought, seen?She came to the conclusion that that young Iris Marle had been slow of development - unthinking, acquiescing in things as they were. Had she resented, for i
20、nstance, her mothers earlier absorption in Rosemary? On the whole she thought not. She had accepted, unhesitatingly, the fact that Rosemary was the very important one. Rosemary was out - naturally her mother was occupied as far as her health permitted with her elder daughter. That had been natural e
21、nough. Her own turn would come some day. Viola Marle had always been a somewhat remote mother, preoccupied mainly with her own health, relegating her children to nurses, governesses, schools, but invariably charming to them in those brief moments when she came across them. Hector Marle had died when
22、 Iris was five years old. The knowledge that he drank more than was good for him had permeated so subtly that she had not the least idea how it had actually come to her.Seventeen-year-old Iris Marle had accepted life as it came, had duly mourned for her mother, had worn black clothes, had gone to li
23、ve with her sister and her sisters husband at their house in Elvaston Square.Sometimes it had been rather dull in that house. Iris wasnt to come out, officially, until the following year. In the meantime she took French and German lessons three times a week, and also attended domestic science classe
24、s. There were times when she had nothing much to do and nobody to talk to.George was kind, invariably affectionate and brotherly. His attitude had never varied. He was the same now.And Rosemary? Iris had seen very little of Rosemary. Rosemary had been out a good deal. Dressmakers, cocktail parties,
25、bridge.What did she really know about Rosemary when she came to think of it? Of her tastes, of her hopes, of her fears? Frightening, really, how little you might know of a person after living in the same house with them! There had been little intimacy between the sisters.But shed got to think now. S
26、hed got to remember. It might be important.Certainly Rosemary had seemed happy enough.Until that day - a week before it happened. She, Iris, would never forget that day. It stood out crystal clear - each detail, each word. The shining mahogany table, the pushed back chair, the hurried characteristic
27、 writing.Iris closed her eyes and let the scene come back.Her own entry into Rosemarys sitting-room, her sudden stop.It had startled her so, what she saw! Rosemary, sitting at the writing table, her head laid down on her outstretched arms. Rosemary weeping with a deep abandoned sobbing. Shed never s
28、een Rosemary cry before - and this bitter, violent weeping frightened her.True, Rosemary had had a bad go of flu. Shed only been up a day or two. And everyone knew that flu did leave you depressed. Still - Iris had cried out, her voice childish, startled:Oh, Rosemary, what is it?Rosemary sat up, swe
29、pt the hair back from her disfigured face. She struggled very hard to regain command of herself. She said quickly:Its nothing - nothing - dont stare at me like that!She got up and passing her sister, she ran out of the room.Puzzled, upset, Iris went farther into the room. Her eyes, drawn wonderingly
30、 to the writing table, caught sight of her own name in her sisters handwriting. Had Rosemary been writing to her then?She drew nearer, looked down on the sheet of blue notepaper with the big characteristic sprawling writing, even more sprawling than usual owing to the haste and agitation behind the
31、hand that held the pen.Darling Iris,There isnt any point in my making a will because my money goes to you anyway, but Id like certain of my things to be given to certain people.To George, the jewellery hes given me, and the little enamel casket we bought together when we were engaged.To Gloria King,
32、 my platinum cigarette case. To Maisie, my Chinese Pottery horse that shes always admir- It stopped there, with a frantic scrawl of the pen as Rosemary had dashed it down and given way to uncontrollable weeping. Iris stood as though turned to stone.What did it mean? Rosemary wasnt going to die, was
33、she? Shed been very ill with influenza, but she was all right now. And anyway people didnt die of flu - at least sometimes they did, but Rosemary hadnt. She was quite well now, only weak and run down.Iriss eyes went over the words again and this time a phrase stood out with startling effect:. my mon
34、ey goes to you anyway.It was the first intimation she had had of the terms of Paul Bennetts will. She had known since she was a child that Rosemary had inherited Uncle Pauls money, that Rosemary was rich whilst she herself was comparatively poor. But until this moment she had never questioned what w
35、ould happen to that money on Rosemarys death.If she had been asked, she would have replied that she supposed it would go to George as Rosemarys husband, but would have added that it seemed absurd to think of Rosemary dying before George!But here it was, set down in black and white, in Rosemarys own
36、hand. At Rosemarys death the money came to her, Iris. But surely that wasnt legal? A husband or wife got any money, not a sister. Unless, of course, Paul Bennett had left it that way in his will. Yes, that must be it. Uncle Paul had said the money was to go to her if Rosemary died. That did make it
37、rather less unfair - Unfair? She was startled as the word leapt to her thoughts. Had she been thinking that it was unfair for Rosemary to get all Uncle Pauls money? She supposed that, deep down, she must have been feeling just that. It was unfair. They were sisters, she and Rosemary. They were both
38、her mothers children. Why should Uncle Paul give it all to Rosemary?Rosemary always had everything! Parties and frocks and young men in love with her and an adoring husband.The only unpleasant thing that ever happened to Rosemary was having an attack of flu! And even that hadnt lasted longer than a
39、week!Iris hesitated, standing by the desk. That sheet of paper - would Rosemary want it left about for the servants to see?After a minutes hesitation she picked it up, folded it in two and slipped it into one of the drawers of the desk.It was found there after the fatal birthday party, and provided
40、an additional proof, if proof was necessary, that Rosemary had been in a depressed and unhappy state of mind after her illness, and had possibly been thinking of suicide even then.Depression after influenza. That was the motive brought forward at the inquest, the motive that Iriss evidence helped to
41、 establish. An inadequate motive, perhaps, but the only one available, and consequently accepted. It had been a bad type of influenza that year.Neither Iris nor George Barton could have suggested any other motive - then.Now, thinking back over the incident in the attic, Iris wondered that she could
42、have been so blind.The whole thing must have been going on under her eyes! And she had seen nothing! Her mind took a quick leap over the tragedy of the birthday party. No need to think of that! That was over - done with. Put away the horror of that and the inquest and Georges twitching face and bloo
43、dshot eyes. Go straight on to the incident of the trunk in the attic. IIThat had been about six months after Rosemarys death.Iris had continued to live at the house in Elvaston Square. After the funeral the Marle family solicitor, a courtly old gentleman with a shining bald head and unexpectedly shr
44、ewd eyes, had had an interview with Iris. He had explained with admirable clarity that under the will of Paul Bennett, Rosemary had inherited his estate in trust to pass at her death to any children she might have. If Rosemary died childless, the estate was to go to Iris absolutely. It was, the soli
45、citor explained, a very large fortune which would belong to her absolutely upon attaining the age of twenty-one or on her marriage.In the meantime, the first thing to settle was her place of residence. Mr George Barton had shown himself anxious for her to continue living with him and had suggested t
46、hat her fathers sister, Mrs Drake, who was in impoverished circumstances owing to the financial claims of a son (the black sheep of the Marle family), should make her home with them and chaperon Iris in society. Did Iris approve of this plan?Iris had been quite willing, thankful not to have to make
47、new plans. Aunt Lucilla she remembered as an amiable elderly sheep with little will of her own.So the matter had been settled. George Barton had been touchingly pleased to have his wifes sister still with him and treated her affectionately as a younger sister. Mrs Drake, if not a stimulating compani
48、on, was completely subservient to Iriss wishes. The household settled down amicably.It was nearly six months later that Iris made her discovery in the attic.The attics of the Elvaston Square house were used as storage rooms for odds and ends of furniture, and a number of trunks and suitcases.Iris had gone up there one day after an unsuccessful hunt for an old red pullover for which she had an affection. George had begged her not to wea
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