part i - england
chapter 1
"linnet ridgeway!"
"that's her!" said mr burnaby, the landlord of the three crowns.
he nudged his companion.
the two men stared with round bucolic eyes and slightly open mouths. a big scarlet rolls royce
had just stopped in front of the local post office.
a girl jumped out, a girl without a hat and wearing a frock that looked (but only looked) simple. a
girl with golden hair and straight autocratic features - a girl with a lovely shape - a girl such as was
seldom seen in malton-under-wode. with a quick imperative step she passed into the post office.
"that's her!" said mr burnaby again. and he went on in a low awed voice: "millions she's got...
going to spend thousands on the place. swimming pools there's going to be, and italian gardens
and a ballroom and half of the house pulled down and rebuilt..."
"she'll bring money into the town," said his friend. he was a lean seedy-looking man. his tone was
envious and grudging.
mr burnaby agreed.
"yes, it's a great thing for malton-under-wode. a great thing it is." mr burnaby was complacent
about it.
"wake us all up proper," he added.
"bit of a difference from sir george," said the other.
"ah, it was the 'orses did for him," said mr burnaby indulgently. "never 'ad no luck."
"what did he get for the place?"
"a cool sixty-thousand, so i've heard."
the lean man whistled.
mr burnaby went on triumphantly: "and they say she'll have spent another sixty-thousand before
she's finished!"
"wicked!" said the lean man. "where'd she get all that money from?"
"america, so i've heard. her mother was the only daughter of one of those millionaire blokes.
quite like the pictures, isn't it?"
the girl came out of the post office and climbed into the car. as she drove off the lean man
followed her with his eyes. he muttered:
"it seems all wrong to me - her looking like that. money and looks - it's too much! if a girl's as rich
as that she's no right to be a good-looker as well. and she is a good-looker. got everything, that
girl has. doesn't seem fair."