{"id":2449,"date":"2026-01-03T22:30:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/the-hollow-christie-agatha\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T22:30:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:30:22","slug":"the-hollow-christie-agatha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/the-hollow-christie-agatha\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hollow – Christie, Agatha"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Book Preview<\/h3>\n
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One<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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A<\/span><\/span>t six thirteen a.m. on a Friday morning Lucy Angkatell\u2019s big blue eyes opened upon another day and, as always, she was at once wide awake and began immediately to deal with the problems conjured up by her incredibly active mind. Feeling urgently the need of consultation and conversation, and selecting for the purpose her young cousin, Midge Hardcastle, who had arrived at The Hollow the night before, Lady Angkatell slipped quickly out of bed, threw a n\u00e9glig\u00e9e round her still graceful shoulders, and went along the passage to Midge\u2019s room. Since she was a woman of disconcertingly rapid thought processes, Lady Angkatell, as was her invariable custom, commenced the conversation in her own mind, supplying Midge\u2019s answers out of her own fertile imagination.<\/p>\n

The conversation was in full swing when Lady Angkatell flung open Midge\u2019s door.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2014And so, darling, you really must agree that the weekend is<\/span> going to present difficulties!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEh? Hwah!\u201d Midge grunted inarticulately, aroused thus abruptly from a satisfying and deep sleep.<\/p>\n

Lady Angkatell crossed to the window, opening the shutters and jerking up the blind with a brisk movement, letting in the pale light of a September dawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirds!\u201d she observed, peering with kindly pleasure through the pane. \u201cSo sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, at any rate, the weather isn\u2019t going to present difficulties. It looks as though it has set in fine. That\u2019s something. Because if a lot of discordant personalities are boxed up indoors, I\u2019m sure you will agree with me that it makes it ten times worse. Round games perhaps, and that would be like last year when I shall never forgive myself about poor Gerda. I said to Henry afterwards it was most thoughtless of me\u2014and one has<\/span> to have her, of course, because it would be so rude to ask John without her, but it really does make things difficult\u2014and the worst of it is that she is so nice\u2014really it seems odd sometimes that anyone so nice as Gerda is should be so devoid of any kind of intelligence, and if that is what they mean by the law of compensation I don\u2019t really think it is at all fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are<\/span> you talking about, Lucy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weekend, darling. The people who are coming tomorrow. I have been thinking about it all night and I have been dreadfully bothered about it. So it really is a relief to talk it over with you, Midge. You are always so sensible and practical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLucy,\u201d said Midge sternly. \u201cDo you know what time it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot exactly, darling. I never do, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quarter past six.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, dear,\u201d said Lady Angkatell, with no signs of contrition.<\/p>\n

Midge gazed sternly at her. How maddening, how absolutely impossible Lucy was! Really, thought Midge, I don\u2019t know why we put up with her!<\/p>\n

Yet even as she voiced the thought to herself, she was aware of the answer. Lucy Angkatell was smiling, and as Midge looked at her, she felt the extraordinary pervasive charm that Lucy had wielded all her life and that even now, at over sixty, had not failed her. Because of it, people all over the world, foreign potentates, ADCs, Government officials, had endured inconvenience, annoyance and bewilderment. It was the childlike pleasure and delight in her own doings that disarmed and nullified criticism. Lucy had but to open those wide blue eyes and stretch out those fragile hands, and murmur, \u201cOh! but I\u2019m so sorry<\/span>\u2026\u201d and resentment immediately vanished.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarling,\u201d said Lady Angkatell, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry.<\/span> You should have told me!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling you now\u2014but it\u2019s too late! I\u2019m thoroughly awake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a shame! But you will<\/span> help me, won\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout the weekend? Why? What\u2019s wrong with it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lady Angkatell sat down on the edge of the bed. It was not, Midge thought, like anyone else sitting on your bed. It was as insubstantial as though a fairy had poised itself there for a minute.<\/p>\n

Lady Angkatell stretched out fluttering white hands in a lovely, helpless gesture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the wrong people coming\u2014the wrong people to be together,<\/span> I mean\u2014not in themselves. They\u2019re all charming really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is<\/span> coming?\u201d<\/p>\n

Midge pushed thick wiry black hair back from her square forehead with a sturdy brown arm. Nothing insubstantial or fairylike about her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, John and Gerda. That\u2019s all right by itself. I mean, John is delightful\u2014most<\/span> attractive. And as for poor Gerda\u2014well, I mean, we must all be very kind. Very, very kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moved by an obscure instinct of defence, Midge said:<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, come now, she\u2019s not as bad as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, darling, she\u2019s pathetic. Those eyes.<\/span> And she never seems to understand a single word one says.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe doesn\u2019t,\u201d said Midge. \u201cNot what you say\u2014but I don\u2019t know that I blame her. Your mind, Lucy, goes so fast, that to keep pace with it your conversation takes the most amazing leaps. All the connecting links are left out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like a monkey,\u201d said Lady Angkatell vaguely.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut who else is coming besides the Christows? Henrietta, I suppose?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lady Angkatell\u2019s face brightened.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes\u2014and I really do feel that she will be a tower of strength. She always is. Henrietta, you know, is really kind\u2014kind all through, not just on top. She will help a lot with poor Gerda. She was simply wonderful last year. That was the time we played limericks, or word-making, or quotations\u2014or one of those things, and we had all finished and were reading them out when we suddenly discovered that poor dear Gerda hadn\u2019t even begun. She wasn\u2019t even sure what the game was. It was dreadful, wasn\u2019t it, Midge?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy anyone ever comes to stay with the Angkatells, I don\u2019t know,\u201d said Midge. \u201cWhat with the brainwork, and the round games, and your peculiar style of conversation, Lucy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, darling, we must be trying\u2014and it must always be hateful for Gerda, and I often think that if she had any spirit she would stay away\u2014but however, there it was, and the poor dear looked so bewildered and\u2014well\u2014mortified, you know. And John looked so dreadfully impatient. And I simply couldn\u2019t think of how to make things all right again\u2014and it was then that I felt so grateful to Henrietta. She turned right round to Gerda and asked about the pullover she was wearing\u2014really a dreadful affair in faded lettuce green\u2014too depressing and jumble sale, darling\u2014and Gerda brightened up at once, it seems that she had knitted it herself, and Henrietta asked her for the pattern, and Gerda looked so happy and proud. And that is what I mean about Henrietta. She can always do<\/span> that sort of thing. It\u2019s a kind of knack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe takes trouble,\u201d said Midge slowly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, and she knows what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh,\u201d said Midge. \u201cBut it goes further than saying. Do you know, Lucy, that Henrietta actually knitted that pullover?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, my dear.\u201d Lady Angkatell looked grave. \u201cAnd wore it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd wore it. Henrietta carries things through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd was it very dreadful?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. On Henrietta it looked very nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, of course it would. That\u2019s just the difference between Henrietta and Gerda. Everything Henrietta does she does well and it turns out right. She\u2019s clever about nearly everything, as well as in her own line. I must say, Midge, that if anyone carries us through this weekend, it will be Henrietta. She will be nice to Gerda and she will amuse Henry, and she\u2019ll keep John in a good temper and I\u2019m sure she\u2019ll be most helpful with David.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Angkatell?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. He\u2019s just down from Oxford\u2014or perhaps Cambridge. Boys of that age are so difficult\u2014especially when they are intellectual. David is very intellectual. One wishes that they could put off being intellectual until they were rather older. As it is, they always glower at one so and bite their nails and seem to have so many spots and sometimes an Adam\u2019s apple as well. And they either won\u2019t speak at all, or else are very loud and contradictory. Still, as I say, I am trusting to Henrietta. She is very tactful and asks the right kind of questions, and being a sculptress they respect her, especially as she doesn\u2019t just carve animals or children\u2019s heads but does advanced things like that curious affair in metal and plaster that she exhibited at the New Artists last year. It looked rather like a Heath Robinson stepladder. It was called Ascending Thought\u2014or something like that. It is the kind of thing that would impress a boy like David\u2026I thought myself it was just silly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Lucy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut some of Henrietta\u2019s things I think are quite lovely. That Weeping Ash tree figure, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHenrietta has a touch of real genius, I think. And she is a very lovely and satisfying person as well,\u201d said Midge.<\/p>\n

Lady Angkatell got up and drifted over to the window again. She played absentmindedly with the blind cord.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy acorns, I wonder?\u201d she murmured.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcorns?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the blind cord. Like pineapples on gates. I mean, there must be a reason.<\/span> Because it might just as easily be a fircone or a pear, but it\u2019s always an acorn. Mast, they call it in crosswords\u2014you know, for pigs. So curious, I always think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t ramble off, Lucy. You came in here to talk about the weekend and I can\u2019t see why you were so anxious about it. If you manage to keep off round games, and try to be coherent when you\u2019re talking to Gerda, and put Henrietta on to tame intellectual David, where is the difficulty?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, for one thing, darling, Edward is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Edward.\u201d Midge was silent for a moment after saying the name.<\/p>\n

Then she asked quietly:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat on earth made you ask Edward for this weekend?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t, Midge. That\u2019s just it. He asked himself. Wired to know if we could have him. You know what Edward is. How sensitive. If I\u2019d wired back \u2018No,\u2019 he\u2019d probably never have asked himself again. He\u2019s like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midge nodded her head slowly.<\/p>\n

Yes, she thought, Edward was like that. For an instant she saw his face clearly, that very dearly loved face. A face with something of Lucy\u2019s insubstantial charm; gentle, diffident, ironic\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Edward,\u201d said Lucy, echoing the thought in Midge\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

She went on impatiently:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf only Henrietta would make up her mind to marry him. She is really fond of him, I know she is. If they had been here some weekend without the Christows\u2026As it is, John Christow has always the most unfortunate effect on Edward. John, if you know what I mean, becomes so much more<\/span> so and Edward becomes so much less<\/span> so. You understand?\u201d<\/p>\n

Again Midge nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I can\u2019t put the Christows off because this weekend was arranged long ago, but I do feel, Midge, that it is all going to be difficult, with David glowering and biting his nails, and with trying to keep Gerda from feeling out of it, and with John being so positive and dear Edward so negative\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ingredients of the pudding are not promising,\u201d murmured Midge.<\/p>\n

Lucy smiled at her.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes,\u201d she said meditatively, \u201cthings arrange themselves quite simply. I\u2019ve asked the Crime man to lunch on Sunday. It will make a distraction, don\u2019t you think so?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCrime man?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike an egg,\u201d said Lady Angkatell. \u201cHe was in Baghdad, solving something, when Henry was High Commissioner. Or perhaps it was afterwards? We had him to lunch with some other Duty people. He had on a white duck suit, I remember, and a pink flower in his buttonhole, and black patent leather shoes. I don\u2019t remember much about it because I never think it\u2019s very interesting who killed who. I mean, once they are dead it doesn\u2019t seem to matter why, and to make a fuss about it all seems so silly\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut have you any crimes down here, Lucy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, no, darling. He\u2019s in one of those funny new cottages\u2014you know, beams that bump your head and a lot of very good plumbing and quite the wrong kind of garden. London people like that sort of thing. There\u2019s an actress in the other, I believe. They don\u2019t live in them all the time like we do. Still,\u201d Lady Angkatell moved vaguely across the room, \u201cI dare say it pleases them. Midge, darling, it\u2019s sweet of you to have been so helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I have been so very helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, haven\u2019t you?\u201d Lucy Angkatell looked surprised. \u201cWell, have a nice sleep now and don\u2019t get up to breakfast, and when you do get up, do be as rude as ever you like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRude?\u201d Midge looked surprised. \u201cWhy! Oh!\u201d she laughed. \u201cI see! Penetrating of you, Lucy. Perhaps I\u2019ll take you at your word.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lady Angkatell smiled and went out. As she passed the open bathroom door and saw the kettle and gas ring, an idea came to her.<\/p>\n

People were fond of tea, she knew\u2014and Midge wouldn\u2019t be called for hours. She would make Midge some tea. She put the kettle on and then went on down the passage.<\/p>\n

She paused at her husband\u2019s door and turned the handle, but Sir Henry Angkatell, that able administrator, knew his Lucy. He was extremely fond of her, but he liked his morning sleep undisturbed. The door was locked.<\/p>\n

Lady Angkatell went on into her own room. She would have liked to have consulted Henry, but later would do. She stood by her open window, looked out for a moment or two, then she yawned. She got into bed, laid her head on the pillow and in two minutes was sleeping like a child.<\/p>\n

In the bathroom the kettle came to the boil and went on boiling\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother kettle gone, Mr. Gudgeon,\u201d said Simmons, the housemaid.<\/p>\n

Gudgeon, the butler, shook his grey head.<\/p>\n

He took the burnt-out kettle from Simmons and, going into the pantry, produced another kettle from the bottom of the plate cupboard where he had a stock of half a dozen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere you are, Miss Simmons. Her ladyship will never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes her ladyship often do this sort of thing?\u201d asked Simmons.<\/p>\n

Gudgeon sighed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer ladyship,\u201d he said, \u201cis at once kindhearted and very forgetful, if you know what I mean. But in this house,\u201d he continued, \u201cI see to it that everything possible is done to spare her ladyship annoyance or worry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Book Preview One At six thirteen a.m. on a Friday morning Lucy Angkatell\u2019s big blue eyes opened upon another day and, as always, she was at once wide awake and began immediately to deal with the problems conjured up by her incredibly active mind. Feeling urgently the need of consultation and conversation, and selecting for … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-2449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agatha-christie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}