OPEN THE DOOR A NOVEL BY CATHERINE CARSWELL F. D. GOODCHILD COMPANY PUBLISHERS TORONTO COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC. THE QUlNN BODEN COMPANY RA . H h W g-J. OPEN THE DOOR BOOK I 46 . . . Open the door, and flee.-2 Kings ix. 3. CHAPTER I F OR Juley Bannerman to leave home was in any case a heavy undertaking. Even without her four children, even with the admonishing help of her husband, the occasion was one for which complicated plans-gallant but not availing - had to be laid weeks beforehand. And on this morning neither alleviation . was hers. As always she had done her best, of course. The night before she had not undressed, had not so much as taken the hairpins from her aching head. Then since breakfast her two daughters, aged twelve and fifteen, had rushed about the house, strapping and unstrapping luggage, and exhorting her. Her confused servants had done what they could. Even her little sons had tried to help, and as the four-wheeled cab went lumbering over the granite setts of the city, they strove unskilfully to knot up her bonnet strings between them. But it was all no use. The morning express from Glasgow to Edinburgh, said the porter, had been gone these two minutes. Now there was no train until ten minutes past twelve. Smarting, not for the first time, under this kind of public ignominy, the children precipitated themselves upon the pavement before Queen Street Station, and Georgie, the eldest, a stout and lively girl, addressed herself with violence to the open door of the cab. Its always the same when Father isnt here, she stormed. I told you wed miss it, didnt I In her rage she could have struck her mother. It exasperated the children that the culprit still stayed 4 O P E N T H E DOOR sitting in the cab, untying and retying the black ribbon strings of her bonnet with a little defiance in her face and they knew she was avoiding their eyes when she leaned forward smiling at the porter, seeking his sympathy, speaking in her warm pleasant voice. Oh But I feel sure there must be a train before then, she urged, as if by sheer hopefulness she could belie the timetables. Letme see the board. And she began a cumbered descent from the cab. For a woman of but forty-two, even allowing for the fact that at this time she was some months gone with child, Juley moved heavily. Not even the loss of a nights rest could rob her face of its yirlish freshness, but this very youthfulness and ardour of expression served to emphasize her physical ineptitude. I t was as if she had never grown used to her body. Often enough had her children heard her sigh impatiently for wings. Yet Joanna, her younger daughter, looking on, could not believe that swiftness and grace were not mere matters of goodwi. 11, and that therefore this clumsiness was deliberate. Why will mother move like that she questioned in childish vexation. And driven by a strong craving, she stared away from the imperfection facing her, and set her eyes instead on a patch of the blue, perfect sky of May which had shone out suddenly between showers above the house-tops. The man must know about the trains, Mother, Georgie scolded, and turning to the porter she asked him when the twelve oclock train reached Edinburgh. But Aunt Georginas lunch is at one declared the elder boy, Linnet, when he had heard the reply and spinning on his heel he seemed to find a zest in adding to the family misfortunes. Aunt Georgina will be cross And what about the carriage Itll be waiting at the station for us. At this a disconsolate exclamation came from Sholto, the youngest.. . Sholto did so love to sit by Mackintosh, his Aunts coachmanwhose fur cape smelt of naptha, as they drove along Princes Street. Georgie glared murderously . at her mother. Its all because Father isnt here, she repeated...