‘It’s her husband,’ the boy said, and if he’d said ‘it’s her drinking’, he couldn’t have said it in any other way.
‘Now look here,’ he hurried on, ‘we’re going to start in Manchester, and I want her up in Manchester for a trial fortnight, and I want her there alone. Can you manage it?’
‘I’ll try,’ I said.
‘And when she comes to London I want that man kept away,’ he continued. ‘It’s a great chance, Miss Oliver. Do what you can, won’t you?’
‘Of course I will,’ I said, and because I was so happy and because he looked like a rescuing angel I forgot he wasn’t his father and I kissed him.
He looked very uncomfortable and went off upstairs.
Louie came down to me about an hour later. She was bubbling with excitement as she told me the whole story all over again.
‘I can do it, you know, Poll
