The Well by Elizabeth Jolley

for her at all, would not desert her.
    â€˜Have another drink,’ she suggested to Rosalie in a voice straining to be cordial but which was pathetic and hopeful. Seeing the glass drained in a most professional and even masculine way, she tried to open her handbag.
    â€˜Heavens no!’ Rosalie said, ‘thank you very much.’ She put her hand over the clasp of Hester’s bag. ‘Ah! oops! I think I’m going to burp,’ she laughed. ‘Mr Borden would kill me if he saw me drink like that but I really was dry and junior,’ here she patted her maternal fullness, ‘craves beer, you’d never believe! If I have another drop I’ll be on my ear.’ She laughed again and leaning towards Hester she was suddenly serious. ‘I expect,’ she said, ‘that you feel quite bereaved.’
    â€˜Why, yes,’ Hester was surprised into admission and at once regretted her indiscretion. It had always been her way to be aloof and withdrawn so that she, in a position of authority with a good head for crops and wool, was beyond gossip and criticism. She had with two words, she knew, made herself available for unlimited speculation.
    â€˜You know, there’s something I have been wanting to say to you for some time,’ Mrs Borden, still serious, dropped her voice. ‘I hope you will understand …’
    â€˜Yes?’ Hester moved uneasily on the uncomfortable sofa. She leaned forward, inclining her head with a stiff movement. In the tremendous noise it was hard to hear. ‘Well yes,’ Mrs Borden echoed Miss Harper’s way of speaking, ‘we don’t, that is Mr Borden and I don’t think, that is, we think that it is not right to keep Katherine, a young woman like Katherine shut away. I mean, she must think of men, a man? Sometimes?’ The hat brim dipped forward deeply and then came up again and Hester had Rosalie Borden’s bright inquisitive eyes directly opposite her own. ‘You must realize,’ her voice changed to a teasing note, ‘that not every woman wishes to remain single.’ The two women glanced quickly, Hester’s glance following Mrs Borden’s at the room full of couples and intending couples. As Hester made no reply Mrs Borden rushed on. ‘I don’t want to seem interfering,’ she said, ‘but it does seem that Katherine is intelligent. She could be a teacher, primary of course, or had you thought of nursing as a career?’ She paused and then continued, ‘Or if not a career, she must surely be thinking of wedding bells? This might sound old fashioned,’ Mrs Borden laughed, ‘but then she is what I call an old-fashioned girl. She is very pretty in a pale sort of way, she should be …’ Mrs Borden, seeing the cold tight expression on Hester’s face, changed the subject. ‘Perhaps,’ she said, ‘we should go and watch the dancing. Shall we?’
    â€˜Oh yes, of course,’ Hester, wishing to be independent of Rosalie Borden’s plump kindly arm, struggled to her feet. ‘I must watch the dancing,’ she said with a grudging little smile as if offering a kindness when she knew privately that it gave her infinite secret pleasure to watch Kathy abandon herself to her own energy. Whenever she watched Kathy dancing, Hester, though outwardly showing no signs, moved in a wonderful freedom within herself. Her tiniest, most obscure muscles all took part. Unseen, her heart beat faster. She breathed more rapidly. In the privacy beneath her strict clothing she knew she was capable of an inner excitement which belonged only to her. It was a solitary experience but she did not mind this, being simply grateful for it. The music, the beat and the rhythm of the dancing filled her with a glow of satisfaction and a realization of deep happiness. She felt as if she had been singing and dancing, moving in time with the music and with other people. She felt as if her hair