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Page 236
on. But suddenly Linda stopped giggling.
If Mrs. Bates's intention was to stymie Peter, that was funny. But was it? Or was the arrangement the result of Mrs. Bates having been frightened on the ship? Did she want to make sure no hostile person could sneak down the stairs to her ground-floor suite? If so, wasn't it odd that the general rather than Peter was at the head of the stairs? There were two empty rooms, one on each side of the bathroom on both sides of the corridor. Then Linda nodded in recognition of Mrs. Bates's good sense. Probably the plumbing in Corfu was as noisy as that in Greece. Mrs. Bates wouldn't use the rooms next to the bathrooms unless necessary. Beside that, the elderly general would almost certainly sleep less soundly than a healthy young man who had been swimming and boating all day.
The idea stimulated in Linda a sudden desire to be out of doors. She looked quickly at her room. It was pleasant, if characterlessa double bed, a chest, a small table at which one could write, a straight chairwith two rather small windows facing more east than north. The shutters had been opened and the windows raised because the sun touched at a sufficiently oblique angle not to overheat the room. Linda leaned out. By craning forward and left, she could just make out the sea, around to the northwest.
"Hi," Donald called up. "You be careful. Those windows are awfully low. I nearly went out of one two years ago."

 
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