The Hireling by L. P. Hartley Page A

have turned them down. Sex played little part in his life; he wanted to get on in the world, and how could he get on with a parcel of women hanging round his neck, making scenes and accusing him of cruelty? Most of them, after one rebuff, had ceased to employ him, and except by chance, they never crossed his
    path again. They were, as customers, a dead loss; even more of a loss-than those who would not take ‘no’ for an answer, these were, from the point of view of building up a connexion, still more undesirable in the long run. The gain, if there was any, was out of proportion to the trouble and embarrassment. With what relief, after such an irksome encounter, did he return to himself and his invulnerable heart! He was aware of possessing it only when someone, greatly daring, tried to thaw it.
    But Lady Franklin was different, or seemed to be. She had made no overtures to him; he was an expert in such matters, but he hadn’t noticed a trace of flirtatiousness in her manner when she gave him the cheque. Yet she was always thanking him, always letting him know how much she owed him, and somewhere, he believed, she had a tender feeling for him; she wouldn’t have parted with so much money unless she had. But strangely enough, the idea that Lady Franklin was in love with him didn’t bore and exasperate him as it would have in the case of other women.
    His motto was to give his customers what they wanted. If Lady Franklin wanted what she seemed to want, why shouldn’t she have it? If another cheque was the result, so much the better; and if it wasn’t, no great harm would have been done.
    All the same, when Thursday came, Leadbitter, who was accustomed to execute his own orders as promptly as he executed other people’s, found himself hesitating. He was a man who often changed his mind, for a soldier has to change his mind when circumstances demand it: he may even have to retreat when the odds are against him. But he was seldom in two minds at once, for a divided mind is fatal to a military operation. If an enemy position has to be taken, it must either be attacked or left alone. Lady Franklin was that enemy position, and he couldn’t make up his mind about it.
    Her greeting had been all that he could have wished for.
    Even under the cold, disapproving eye of the butler whose face always seemed to contract when Leadbitter appeared, she had not disguised her pleasure at seeing him again. And how differently she was dressed ! Gone was the blue and white uniform, suggesting convents, hospitals; under her fur coat she was all done up (he thought) like a dog’s eyebrows. And her shoes, that showed her toes! Half shrinking, half desiring, his skin reacted to them. If all this was not for him, who was it for? ‘Isn’t it three weeks,’ she prattled when she was seated at his side and the car had glided off, ‘three weeks since you last took me out?’
    ‘Three weeks and two days, my lady,’ Leadbitter replied.
    ‘How nice of you to have counted the days!’ said Lady Franklin. ‘They have been such busy days for me. Well, perhaps I oughtn’t to say busy, when you are so much busier than I am, in the true sense of the word. But they have been very full days, full of social engagements, going here and there. But they have been very happy days, too, very happy,’
    For some reason Leadbitter wasn’t pleased to be told that Lady Franklin had been spending happy days, but he dutifully answered:
    ‘I’m very glad to hear it, my lady,’
    ‘Oh yes. Oh well, you know what it is when one comes back to something after a long absence, something that one used to enjoy, but for one reason and another hasn’t been able to enjoy - social life, I mean. It’s quite gone to my head, seeing all my friends again and finding them unchanged and still fond of me, or saying so, at any rate. You know they’ve made quite a fuss of me,’ she said, turning on Leadbitter her great blue eyes, which now looked larger than they used