A SMALL SLICE OF SUMMER
by
Betty Neels


MILLS <sl B 0 0 1ST

CHAPTER ONE

big then struck midday, and the sound, though muffled by the roar of
London's traffic, struck clearly enough on Letitia Marsden's ear,
causing her to put down the recovery tray she had been checking and
look expectantly towards the doors separating theatre from the recovery
room.  Mr.  Snell had begun a Commando operation some three hours
earlier; at any moment now the patient would be handed over to her
care.  The doors swung silently open at that very moment and she
pressed the buzzer which would let the orderly know that she must come
at once, and advanced to meet the theatre party and receive the still
figure on the trolley from the hands of the scrub nurse.

"Hi, Tishy," said that young lady in a cheerful whisper.

"Everything's OK, buzz if you want any help."  They cast a combined
professional eye over the unconscious man between them.

"He's been a nasty colour once or twice, so keep your weather eye
open."

Letitia nodded.

"What's next?  A cholecystectomy, isn't it?"

Her friend and colleague nodded.

"Yes--this one should be fit to move before Sir gets through with it,
though.  The anaesthetist will be out presently--he's new by the way,
filling in for Doctor van den Berg Effert."  She raised her brows in an
exaggerated arch.

"Super, too."

she handed over the theatre slip, cast an eye on the clock, murmured:

"So long," and slid back through the doors.

Letitia began her work, silent save for the muttered word now and then
to the attendant orderly, one Mrs.  Mead, a middle-aged lady of great
good sense, who had the added virtue of doing exactly what she was
asked to do without arguing about it--her whole mind, save for one
minute portion of it, concentrated upon her task, and that tiny portion
concealed so deliberately beneath her calm cringed away from the
grotesque appearance of the patient; the flap of skin already grafted,
later to be used to cover the extensive operation on his throat, gave
the man, lying so still, a quite un human appearance, and yet she was
fully aware that later, given skilled nursing, expert skin grafting and
time, his appearance could be made perfectly acceptable even to the
most sensitive.  She noted his pulse, his pupil reactions and his
breathing, charted her findings, and because his colour wasn't quite to
her satisfaction, turned on the oxygen.  She was adjusting it when the
door opened and a gowned and masked figure came unhurriedly in, to join
her at the patient's side.  A large man, very tall, and when he pulled
down his mask, extremely handsome with it, with fair hair already
flecked with grey, bright blue eyes and a long straight nose whose
winged nostrils gave him a somewhat arrogant expression.  But his mouth
was kind when he smiled, and he was smiling at her now.  She didn't
smile back; since her unfortunate experience with the Medical Registrar
she distrusted men--that was to say, all men under the age of fifty or
so.  She frowned at him, her eyes beneath their dark brows as bright a
blue as his, her ordinary face, with its run-of the-mill nose and large
generous mouth, framed by the theatre mob cap which concealed the great
quantity of dark brown hair she wore in a well- ordered coil on the top
of her head.

"OK?"

asked the giant mildly.

She handed him the chart with its quarter- hourly observations.

"His colour isn't quite as good as it was," she stated, "I've started
the oxygen."

He nodded and handed back the chart, looking at her now, instead of the
patient.

"Call me if you want me," he answered her, still very mild.

"The name's Mourik van Me."  He turned on his heel and slid through the
doors, making no sound, and moving, considering his size, very fast.

She got on with her work, saying what was necessary to Mrs.  Mead, her
mind on her patient.  It was only after an hour, when the giant had
been back once more, pronounced the patient fit to be transferred to
the Intensive Care Unit and gone again, that she allowed herself to
speculate who he was.  Dutch, she supposed, like Doctor van den Berg
Effert, one of the few men she liked and trusted and wasn't shy of; but
then he was married to Georgina, her elder sister's close friend; they
had trained together and now Margo was Sister on the Children's Unit,
and Georgina lived in the lap of luxury and a state of married bliss in
Doctor van den Berg Effort's lovely home in Essex.  She and Margo had
been there to stay once or twice and Letitia, living in a fool's
paradise in which the Medical Registrar was the only important being,
had imagined herself living like that too only it hadn't turned out
like that at all; he had taken her out for a month or two, talking
vaguely about a future, which she, in her besotted state, had already
imagined into a fact which wasn't fact at all, only daydreams, and
then, when she had refused to go away with him for the weekend, had
turned the daydream into a nightmare with a jibing speech about old
fashioned girls who should move with the times, and ending with the
remark that she wasn't even pretty.  She had known that, of course, but
she had always thought that when one fell in love,

looks didn't matter so very much, but she had been too hurt to say
anything, and how did one begin to explain that being the middle girl
in a family of five daughters, strictly but kindly brought up by a
mother with decidedly old fashioned ideas and a father who was rector
of a small parish in the depths of rural Devon was hardly conducive to
being the life and soul of the swinging set.

She had said nothing at all, not because she was a meek girl, but
because she was too choked with hurt pride and rage to make sense.  She
had thought of several telling speeches to make since that unhappy
occasion, but since he worked on the Medical Wing and she spent her
days in Theatre Unit, there was small chance of their meeting--and a
good thing too, although her friends, meaning it kindly, kept her
informed of his movements.  He was currently wrapped up with Jean
Mitchell, the blonde staff nurse on Orthopaedics, whom no one liked
anyway;

Letitia, in her more peevish moments, wished them well of each other.

The Commando case was transferred to the I.

C.

U.

; she handed him over to the Sister-in- charge, repeated the
instructions she had been given, put his charts into her superior's
hands, and raced back to the recovery room.  The cholecystectomy would
be out at any moment now and she had to fetch the fresh recovery tray
and see that Mrs.  Mead had cleared the other one away and tidied up.
They were nicely ready when the doors swung silently open once more. 
It had been a straightforward case; she received her instructions,
obeyed them implicitly, and when the anaesthetist loomed silently
beside her, handed him the chart without speaking; there was no need to
tell him the things he could see for himself:

the patient was ready to go to the ward and she stood quietly waiting
for him to tell her so, which he did with an unhurried: "OK, Staff,
wheel her away.  There's an end-to-end coming out in a few minutes, old
and frail; do what you can and let me know if you need me."

And so the day wore on.  Letitia was relieved for a late dinner and
found the canteen almost empty, though the Main Theatre staff nurse was
still there and a handful of nurses who had been delayed by various
emergencies.

Letitia wandered along the counter with her tray, looking for something
cheap and nourishing;

she had bought a dress on her last days off and her pocket was now so
light that buying her meals had become a major exercise in basic
arithmetic.  She chose soup, although it was a warm June day, a roll to
go with it and a slab of treacle tart, because starch was filling and
even though it was fattening too she was lucky enough not to have that
problem, being possessed of a neat little figure which retained its
slender curves whatever she ate.  She paid for these dainties at the
end of the counter and went to join her fellow staff nurse, Angela
Collins, who cast a sympathetic eye at the contents of her tray, said
fervently: "Thank God it's only a week to pay-day," and addressed
herself to her own, similar meal.

Letitia nodded.

"Holidays in four weeks," she observed cheerfully, and thought with
sudden longing of the quiet Rectory.  The raspberries would be ripe,
she would go into the garden and walk up and down the canes, eating as
many as she wanted.  She sighed and asked: "How's theatre?  There's
only that resection left, isn't there?"

Her friend snorted.

"There was--they popped two more on the list while Sister wasn't
looking.  She's fighting mad, but Mr.  Snell's doing his famous
wheedling act and that new man has the charm turned full on--he's got
her all girlish.  I must say he's rather a dream; a pity he's only here
while our Julius takes a holiday."

"I thought you liked him."

"Our Julius?  Of course I do--we all dote on him, but he's married,
isn't he?  To your sister's best friend, too."

Letitia nibbled at her roll, making it last.

"Yes, she's a sweetie, too."

She wolfed down the treacle tart.

"I've still got some tea, shall we make a pot?"

They hurried over to the Nurses' Home and climbed to the top floor
where the staff nurses had their rooms, and because there were several
girls off duty, the tea was stretched to half a dozen mugs, sipped in
comfort on Letitia's bed to the accompaniment of a buzz of conversation
until she looked at her watch, discovered that she was almost late, and
flew back through the hospital once more, walking sedately in those
parts where she was likely to meet Authority, who frowned on running
nurses, and tearing like mad along the long empty back corridors.

The afternoon went fast; it was half past four before the last case was
wheeled away to the ward and Letitia, aided by the faithful Mrs.  Mead,
began clearing up.  Between them they had the place stripped, cleaned
and put together again by the time Big Ben chimed five o'clock.  Mrs.
Mead had gone and Letitia had taken off her theatre dress and mob cap
and was standing in the middle of the room doing absolutely nothing
when the giant walked in once more.

"Not got home yet?"  he asked carelessly as he crossed to the outside
door.

"Good afternoon to you."  He smiled vaguely in her direction and she
heard him walking rapidly along the corridor which led to the wards.
When she couldn't hear his footsteps any more she took one final look
round the recovery room and went in her turn out of the door.  As she
passed the Surgical Wing she caught a glimpse of him, standing outside
Sister's office, deep in conversation with Staff Nurse Bolt, another
friend of hers.  They were both laughing and it made her feel a little
lonely: he could have stopped and talked to her, too.

She had to hear of him later that evening, when half a dozen of them
were sitting round consuming the chips they had been down the road to
buy--cheaper than the canteen and filling-besides, someone had come
back from days off with a large fruit cake and, between them they had
gathered tea and sugar and milk and made a giant pot of tea.  They had
cast off their frilly caps and their shoes and some of them were
already in dressing gowns and the noise was considerable.  It was
Angela who brought up the subject of the newcomer.

"He's fab," she uttered to anyone who cared to listen, 'huge and
smashing to look at, and one of those lovely slow, deep voices.  " She
turned her Read to look for Letitia, pouring tea.

"Hey, Tishy, you must have had time to take a good look--didn't you
think he was absolutely super?  Just about the most super man you've
ever set eyes on?"

There was silence for a few seconds; every girl in the room knew about
Tishy and the Medical

Registrar, and because they all liked her they had done their best to
help her by saying nothing about it and ignoring her pinched face and
red eyes.  It was a pity that Angela hadn't stopped to think.  Several
of them spoke at once to save Tishy from answering, but she spoke with
her usual composure.

"I didn't really look at him--we were too busy.

He knows his job, though.  "

There was a chorus of relieved agreement before someone wanted to know
if the rest of them had seen the trouser suits in Peter Robinson's, and
the talk turned, as it so often did, to clothes.

Letitia was on duty at eight o'clock the next morning.  The list was
heavy enough to begin with, petering out after dinner time, so that by
four o'clock she was clearing the recovery room in the pleasant
anticipation of getting off duty punctually at half past four.  As
indeed she was.  She wandered through the hospital on the way to her
room; several of her friends were off duty too, they might have a few
sets of tennis, it was a lovely day still.  She stopped to look out of
a window and saw Doctor Mourik van Me getting into a car--a splendid
BMW convertible.  She studied its sleek lines and admired the discreet
grey of its coach work before she turned away, wondering where he was
going.

Jason Mourik van Me was going to Dalmers

Place.  An hour or so later he joined Julius van den Berg Effert and
Georgina on the terrace behind the house.  Polly, their very small
daughter, was almost asleep on her father's knee and Georgina exclaimed
in relief as he walked out of the french windows.

"There you are--Polly refuses to go to bed until you've kissed her good
night."

She smiled at her husband's friend.

"If you'll do that right away.

I'll whisk her off to bed and Julius shall get us all a drink.  "

Jason smiled at her, kissed his small goddaughter, exchanged a brief
"Dag' and sat down.

"Stay where you are, darling," said Julius, "I'll pop this young woman
into her bed and bring the drinks as I come back."

His wife gave him a warm smile.

"Tell Nanny I'll be up in ten minutes unless Ivo starts to cry."  Her
smile widened and Julius grinned back at her; Ivo was just two months
old, a tiny replica of his father, whereas little Polly was like her
mother with a gentle prettiness and most of her charm.  She wound a
small arm round her father's neck now and smiled sleepily at him as he
carried her into the house.

Jason watched them go.

"Julius is a lucky man," he said quietly.

"You, and the enchanting Polly, and now Ivo."

"I'm lucky too," Georgina told him, "I've got Julius."

"I hope someone says that about me one day," he observed.

"May I smoke my pipe?"

She nodded.

"Of course.  Did you have a busy day?"

"So-so.  One Commando to start with and a couple of abdominals, then we
petered out with appendices.  Snell was operating again.  Oh-Theatre
Sister sent her love, I've forgotten what she said her name was and I
couldn't identify her very well; she was gowned up and masked, the only
face I've seen clearly in these last few days was in the recovery
room--quite unremarkable, though--it belongs to someone called
Tishy."

Georgina smiled.

"Little Tishy.  She's Margo's young sister--she must be twenty-three, I
suppose, she qualified six months ago.  You didn't like her?"

Jason stretched his long legs and studied his enormous, beautifully
shod feet.

"I hadn't really thought about it," he admitted carelessly.

"Mousey girls with heavy frowns aren't quite my line."

"Oh, she doesn't frown all the time," stated Georgina quickly, 'it's
only because you're a man," and as her companion's brows shot up:

"She was almost engaged to the Medical Registrar, but he switched his
interest to a dashing blonde on Orthopaedics--I daresay she was more
accommodating.  I don't know what he said to poor little Tishy, but
ever since then she's shied away from anything male under fifty."

"Julius too?"

"Julius is thirty-seven," his loving wife reminded him, 'but Margo is a
friend of mine and of course I know Tishy too; she's been here once or
twice, so she knows Julius quite well as well as working for him.

He takes care to be casually friendly, bless him.  She's a splendid
nurse.  "

She turned her head and her eyes lighted up as they always did when she
saw her husband.

"Sorry I was so long," he apologized as he set the tray of drinks
down.

"Great-Uncle Ivo telephoned--wants to know when we're going over to
Bergenstijn.  I told him we'd be there before the summer's over.  The
theatre's closing at the end of July, we'll go then if you would like
that, my love."

Georgina agreed happily.

"Lovely, Julius--we can all go.  Cor and Beatrix and Franz-Karel can
drive them over.  Dimphena will be with Jan, I suppose, but they could
come over..."

Jason studied his glass.

"What a quiverful you took on when you married Julius," he observed
idly, 'four cousins of assorted ages.  "

"Don't forget Polly and Ivo.  But the others-they're not small any
more; Karel's a postgraduate and almost finished with hospital, and
Franz is sixteen, that only leaves Beatrix and Cor,

and now Dimphena is married there's quite a gap.  "

"Which we shall doubtless fill within the next few years," commented
her husband softly.

"I'm envious," said Jason slowly, and Georgina threw him a quick
glance.

"No need," she told him kindly, 'you only have to lift a finger for all
the prettiest girls to come running.  "

"That's all very well as well as being grossly exaggerated, but none of
these same girls had ever succeeded in convincing me that I can't live
without her."

Georgina got up.

"One day there'll be a girl," she assured him, 'though probably she
won't be pretty or come running.  I'm going to see to Ivo.  "

She ran indoors and the two men sat in silence for a few minutes.

Presently Jason spoke.

"As I said to Georgina just now, you're a lucky devil, Julius."

"Yes, I know."  He added thoughtfully, "I was thirty-three when I first
met Georgina."

"A reminder that I'm thirty-five and still haven't met my paragon?"

They both laughed before plunging into a discussion as to how the day
had gone in theatre, absorbed in their world of anaesthetics.

It was later that evening as Georgina sat before her dressing table
brushing her hair that she said suddenly: "Julius, can you think of a
good reason for having Tishy down here?"

Her husband's eyes met hers in the mirror.

"Tishy?"  he queried mildly.

"Why Tishy, darling?"

"She could be exhausted," went on Georgina, taking no notice, 'worn out
with work and needing a few days' rest.  "

Julius had become adept at reading his wife's mind.

"She would have to work fast."

Georgina gave him a doubtful look.

"That won't do, then," she stated positively.

"I daresay she can't bear the sight of him, and he's hardly noticed
her."

"My love, is it wise to play providence?  They're a most unlikely
pair;

just because Tishy is getting over hurt pride and Jason chooses to
remain a carefree bachelor it doesn't mean that they'll fall into each
other's arms.  "

"No, I can see that, but it would be nice.  If we just gave them the
chance..."

But as it turned out there was no need of that.

Two days later, with the list almost over for the day, Letitia was
starting on the clearing up, her mind happily occupied with plans for
her days off, due to start in the morning.  Two days, she mused, and
almost no money so she wouldn't be able to go home, but she could go to
Epping, where an elderly aunt lived--no telephone, unfortunately, but
Aunt Maud never minded an unexpected visitor for a couple of days.  She
had a dear little house on the edge of the forest and it would be
pleasant after the heat and rush of London and the hospital.  IfMargo
had been there they could have gone together, but she was on holiday,
up in Scotland with friends.  Letitia nodded her head in satisfaction,
glad that she had made up her mind, and looked impatiently at the
theatre doors; the case should have been finished by now, it was hernia
and shouldn't have to stay long in her care.  She looked at the clock,
calculating how soon she could get away that evening, then turned round
to see who it was who had just come in from the outer door.

It was the very last person she wanted to see;

Mike Brent, the Medical Registrar, lounging in, very sure of himself,
his good-looking face wearing a smile which not so very long ago would
have melted her heart and now, rather to her surprise, made no
impression upon it at all.

"Hullo," he said, 'how's little Tishy?  Haven't seen you around for
quite a few weeks--I was beginning to think you might have run away.
"

She eyed him steadily.

"Why should you think that?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, well--no hard feelings."

She arranged a recovery tray just so before she answered him.

"I'm busy, there's a case..."

He interrupted her impatiently.

"Oh, come off it, Tishy.  To tell you the truth I've been a bit
worried; didn't like to think of you feeling jilted and all that, you
know--after all, I couldn't help it if you took me seriously, could I?
And you're a bit out of date, aren't you.

1 mean, the odd weekend doesn't mean a thing.  "

"It does to me."  Neither of them heard the theatre door open, Doctor
Mourik van Nie's voice startled them both.

"Perhaps if I might break into this most interesting discussion on your
love life?"  he suggested placidly, and turned to Letitia to study her
furious face with gentle amusement.

"This next case coming in within a few minutes--she's not so good."  He
ignored the other man completely and began to give her instructions;

by the time he had finished Mike had gone.

She boiled with temper while she dealt competently with her patient,
damping down her furious thoughts so that she might concentrate on the
matter in hand.  Only some half an hour later, the patient transferred
to the ward, nicely on the road to recovery again, did she allow her
mind to dwell on the unfortunate episode which had occurred.  And
funnily enough it was the Dutchman she was furious with; for coming in
like that and overhearing Mike talking all that hot air.  She paused,
aware that his words, which at one time would have been quite
shattering to her, were, in fact, just that.  She had, let her face it,
been a fool; she was well rid of him, even if her pride was still
ragged at the edges.  But that Doctor Mourik van Me should have been a
witness to such a nasty little scene--that was a different matter
entirely; he must have found it amusing;

he had stared at her as though he had never seen her before.  She felt
unreasonably annoyed about that, so that she clashed and banged her way
around the recovery room before finally leaving it in a state of
perfection.  The quicker she got out of the hospital and into Aunt
Maud's placid company, the better.

In her room she flung a few things into an overnight bag, changed into
the tan jersey cardigan suit with the shell pink blouse she had bought
instead of eating properly that month, coiled her long hair neatly on
the top of her head and, nicely made up, dashed out to catch a bus.

The Underground was crowded; she didn't get a seat until the train had
left Leytonstone, and it was a relief when she at last got out at
Epping and went into the street.  The crowds were a little less now,
but the rush hour wasn't quite over;

track was still heavy coming from London.  She was standing on the kerb
waiting to cross the street when a group of people passing her
unthinkingly shoved her off the curb into the path of the oncoming
cars.  She had a momentary glimpse of a sleek grey bonnet and heard the
squeal of brakes as the bumper tipped her off balance.  She fell,
hoping desperately that her new out fit wouldn't be ruined, aware as
she fell that she had done so awkwardly and that her left ankle hurt
most abominably.  She had no chance to think after that, because Doctor
Mourik van Me was bending over her.

"Well, I'm damned," he said, and then: "Does anything hurt?  The bumper
caught you and you fell awkwardly."

Letitia sat up, glad of his arm, comfortably firm, round her
shoulders.

"I was trying to save my dress.  It's my ankle, otherwise I'm fine."

A small crowd had collected, but the doctor took no notice of it,
merely scooped her neatly off the ground and carried her to the car,
where he sat her carefully on the front seat.

"Let's have a look," he suggested calmly, and slid her sandal off a
decidedly swollen ankle.

"A sprain, I fancy.  Stockings or tights?"

"Tights."

He produced a pair of scissors from a pocket.

"Sorry about this--I'll get you another pair," he promised as he made a
neat slit and cut the nylon neatly way above the ankle.  He was
reaching for his bag in the back of the car when the policeman arrived.
Letitia sat back, listening to the doctor's quiet answers to the
officer's questions, the eager chorus of witnesses, anxious to allow no
blame to rest upon him, and her own voice, a little wobbly, giving her
name and address and where she was going and why.  By the time things
had been sorted out the ankle had been firmly bandaged and her head was
beginning to ache.  She didn't listen to what the doctor said to the
policeman-indeed, she barely noticed when he got in beside her and
started the car; she was suddenly sleepy.  The car was comfortable to
the point of luxury;

she closed her eyes.

They were almost at Dalmers Place when she woke up again; she
recognized the road almost at once.

"I was going to my aunt in Epping," she began worriedly.

"My days off, you know."

"You went to sleep--the best thing for you.  Does she expect you?"

"No."

"Then there's nothing to worry about.  I'm taking you to Dalmers
Place.

You're a friend of Georgina, aren't you--and Julius?  They'll be
delighted to put you up for the night.  "

She turned to look at him, quite shocked.

"Oh, you can't do that--invite me there without them knowing, whatever
will they say?  If you'd stop ... oh, dear, we've gone through Bishop's
Stortford, haven't we?  Could you go a little out of your way to
Saffron Walden?  There's a station there--I could get on a train back
to Epping."

"Hopping all the way?  Don't be absurd.  Besides, I feel responsible
for you--I knocked you down."

"But it wasn't your fault, and really I can't allow you..."

He interrupted her in a placid voice.

"Dear girl, what a mountain you are making out of this little molehill!
And you know that you're dying to get to bed and nurse that painful
ankle."

She had to laugh a little then and he gave her a quick sideways glance
and said: "That's better," and a moment later slowed the car to allow
Mr.  Legg, who did the garden and lived in the lodge at Dalmers Place,
to come out and open the gate for them, and then drove, still slowly,
up the short, tree-lined drive to the house where he stopped before its
door, told her to stay where she was, got out, and went round the side
of the house.

Georgina looked up as he reached the terrace.

"Hullo," she greeted him cheerfully.

"We were just beginning to wonder what had happened to you."

"I've brought someone with me, I hope you won't mind--it's Tishy."

He was quick to see the quick look his friends exchanged and went on
smoothly, "I could take her on..."  to be cut short by Georgina's
fervent:

"No, Jason--we're delighted, really, only Julius and I were talking
about her--oh, quite casually," she avoided her husband's twinkling
eye, 'and it's funny, isn't it, how when you talk about some one they
often turn up unexpectedly.

Where have you left her?  "

In the car.  She sprained her ankle I knocked her down.  "

Georgina was already leading the way.

"Oh, how unfortunate!"  she exclaimed, meaning exactly the opposite.
She glanced at Julius over her shoulder and when Jason wasn't looking,
pulled a face at him.

"But we must thank Providence that it was you, if you see what I
mean."

CHAPTER TWO

letitia sat in the car, feeling a fool.  Her ankle throbbed, so did her
head, and she had been pitch forked into a situation which had been
none of her doing.  Probably Georgina would be furious at having an
unexpected guest at less than a moment's notice.  True, she had been to
Dalmers Place before, but only in the company of her sister Margo--it
was Margo who was Georgina's friend.  She sought feverishly for a
solution to her problem and came up with nothing practical, and when
the three of them came round the house and crossed the grass towards
the car, she found herself studying their faces for signs of annoyance.
She could see none; Georgina was looking absolutely delighted and her
husband was smiling, and as for Doctor Mourik van Me, he wore the
pleased look of one who had done his duty and could now wash his hands
of the whole tiresome affair.

Georgina reached the car first.

"Tishy," she exclaimed, 'you poor girl--does it hurt very much?  You
shall go straight to bed and the men shall take another look at it--you
look as though you could do with a drink, too.  Thank heaven it was
Jason who knocked you down and not some stranger who wouldn't have
known what to do.  "

She paused for breath and Letitia said quickly:

"I'm awfully sorry--I mean, coming suddenly like this and being so
awkward."  Her eyes searched Georgina's face anxiously.

"You don't mind?"

"Of course not, it'll be fun once that ankle stops aching."  She stood
aside while Julius said Hullo in a welcoming way and Jason said
matter-of factly

"I'll carry you in."

"I can hobble, I'm sure I can."

He grinned.

"I shouldn't bet on that if I were you."  He had opened the car door
and swept her carefully into his arms.

"Which room?"  he asked Georgina.

"Turn left at the top of the stairs, down the little passage, the
second door."

Letitia wondered if the doctor found her heavy;

apparently not, for he climbed the staircase at a good pace and with no
huffing or puffing, found her room without difficulty and sat her down
in a chair.

"Georgina will help you undress," he told her with impersonal kindness,
'and we'll come back later and take another look at the ankle.  " He
had gone before she could frame her thanks.

Half an hour later she was sitting up in bed, nicely supported by
pillows and with the bed clothes turned back to expose her foot; by
now the ankle was badly swollen and discoloured.  The men came in
together with Georgina and Letitia wasn't sure whether to be pleased or
not when neither gave her more than a cursory glance before bending
over the offending joint, which they agreed was nothing more than a
partial tear of the ligament and hardly justified an X-ray.

"We'll strap it," they told her.

"You'll have to rest it for three or four days, then you can start
active use--a couple of weeks and you'll be as good as new."

"A couple of weeks?  But I've only got two days off!"  She was appalled
at their verdict.

"Sick leave?"  suggested Doctor Mourik van Me.  He sounded positively
fatherly.

She stared at him; they were all being very kind, but she was spoiling
their evening.  She said quickly: "If I could go back to St.  Athel's
with you in the morning--there's a list at nine o'clock, isn't
there?--I could see someone.  That's if you wouldn't mind taking me."

He gave her a long considered look and she felt her cheeks grow red.

"No, I won't take you, you silly girl.  Georgina has already said that
you're to stay here until Julius pronounces you fit to travel, and that
won't be for a few days."

"Of course you'll stay," chimed in Georgina warmly.

"I shall love having you; these two are driving up to Edinburgh at the
weekend, to some meeting or other, and I wasn't looking forward to
being alone one bit.  And now I'm going to see about your dinner, you
must be famished."

"And I'll telephone St.  Athel's," Julius suggested, and left the room
with his wife, leaving Doctor Mourik van Me lounging on the side of the
bed.

"That's settled," he commented, and smiled at her, and for some reason
she remembered that he had smiled that afternoon when he had come upon
her and Mike.

"You're all very kind," she said crossly, because her head still ached,
'but I don't like being a nuisance.  "

He got to his feet so that she had to tilt her head to look up at
him.

"My dear girl," he said, and his voice was bland, 'the sooner you stop
imagining that because one man said you were--er--old-fashioned, the
rest of us are villains and you're a failure, the better.  I'm
surprised at you; you seem to me to be a sensible enough girl, and when
you smile you're quite pretty.  "

He strolled to the door.

"You'll feel better in the morning," he assured her as he went out.

Letitia stared at the shut door; probably she would feel much better in
the morning, at the moment she felt quite sick with surprise and
temper--how dared he talk to her like that?  --it was possibly these
strong feelings which caused her to burst into tears.

She was wiping her eyes when Georgina came back, and she, after one
quick glance, made some thoughtful remark about delayed shock and
proffered the glass of sherry she had brought with her.

"Dinner in half an hour," she said cheerfully, 'and Julius says a good
night's sleep is a must, so he's coming along with a sleeping pill
later on.  "

Letitia sipped the sherry.

"I've never taken one in my life," she protested, and then remembering
what the Dutchman had said, added meekly: "But I will if he says so."

She felt a lot better after her dinner and better still after a long
night's sleep.  Indeed, she woke early and lay watching the sun
gathering strength for another warm day, and she heard the car drive
away too.  That would be Doctor Mourik van Me, she supposed, and she
felt an unreasonable pique because he hadn't come to inquire how she
felt, but of course she wasn't his patient, only an unfortunate
incident at the end of a long day.

She sat up in bed, wincing a little at the pain in her ankle, and
thought about him, willing to admit, now that it was morning and she
was feeling better, that he had been quite right even if a little
outspoken, the previous evening.  She had been sorry for herself, she
admitted that now, although she hadn't much liked being dubbed as
sensible, but he had said that she was almost pretty when she smiled.
She smiled now, remembering it, and turned a beaming face upon the maid
who presently tapped on the door with her early morning tea.

The day rolled along on well-oiled wheels; the house came alive,
breakfasted, and settled down to the morning.  Julius came early,
examined the ankle, pronounced it to be going along nicely and left
Georgina to help her out of bed and into a chair by the window and
presently they all had their coffee there, with Polly playing happily
and baby Ivo asleep in his cot.  It was when Julius got up to go to his
study that Letitia asked a little diffidently if he had telephoned the
hospital.

"Did I forget to tell you?  You are to stay here until I consider it
all right for you to travel, and it has been left to me to decide if
you need a week off after that."

She was unaware of how plainly her thoughts showed on her face.

"Home for a few days?"  suggested Georgina, reading them correctly.

"One of the men can take you up to town and drop you off at the
station..."

She stopped and smiled, looking so pleased with herself that Letitia
was on the point of asking why, but Julius spoke first, to say that he
would be back very shortly and carry her down to the garden.

"Far too nice a day to stay indoors," he pointed out kindly, and when
she thanked him, adding that she hoped she wasn't being a nuisance, he
went on: "Of course not--we're treating you as one of the family,
Tishy, and Georgina's delighted to have your company while we're away,
and in any case, just to prove how much we take you for granted, I'm
driving her to Saffron Walden very shortly.  Nanny will be here with
the babies, of course, and Stephens will bring you your lunch and see
that you're comfortable.  You don't mind?"

He had struck the right note; she felt at ease now because she wasn't
spoiling their day after all.

"Of course I don't mind--it will be super doing nothing.  You're both
so kind."

Julius went away and Georgina smiled and offered to get a rather
fetching housecoat of a pleasing shade of pink for her guest to wear.

Letitia put it on, admiring the fine lawn and tucks and lace.  It had a
pie-frill collar and cuffed sleeves, and looking down at her person,
she had to admit that lovely clothes did something for one.  "I can
leave my hair, can't I?"  she asked.

"There's no one to see."

Her kind hostess bent down to pick up a hairpin.  She said: "No one,
Tishy," hoping that Providence, already so kind, would continue to be
so.

The day was glorious.  Letitia, lying comfortably on a luxurious day
bed, leafed through the pile of glossy magazines she had been provided
with, ate a delicious lunch Mrs.  Stephens had arranged so temptingly
on the trays Stephens carried out to her, then closed her eyes.  It was
warm in the sun; she would have a crop of freckles in no time, but it
really didn't matter.  She had spent a lot of money she really couldn't
afford on a jar of something or other to prevent them, because Mike had
told her once that he thought they were childish.  Thinking about it
now, she began to wonder exactly what it was about her that he had
liked.  Whatever it had been, it hadn't lasted long.  She remembered
with faint sickness how he had told her that she wasn't pretty.

"Not even pretty," he had said, as though there was nothing else about
her that was attractive.  She frowned at the thought and pondered the
interesting question as to what Doctor Mourik van Me would find
attractive in a girl.  Whatever it was, she felt very sure that she
hadn't got it.  She dozed off, frowning a little.

She woke up half an hour later, much refreshed, and saw him sitting in
an outside garden chair, his large hands locked behind his head, his
eyes shut.  She looked at him for a few seconds, wondering if he were
really asleep and why was he there anyway; her watch told her that it
was barely half past two; theatre should have gone on until at least
four o'clock.  Perhaps, she thought childishly, he wasn't really there;
he had been the last person she had thought about before she went to
sleep--he could be the tail end of a dream.  She shut her eyes and
opened them again and found him still there, looking at her now.

"You've got freckles," he observed, and unlike Mike, he sounded as
though he rather liked them.

"Yes, I know--I hate them.  I bought some frightfully expensive cream
to get rid of them, but it didn't work."

"They're charming, let them be."  His voice was impersonal and casually
friendly and she found herself smiling.

"I thought theatre was working until four o'clock today."

"It was, but at half past twelve precisely some workman outside in the
street pick axed his way through the hospital's water supply.  Luckily
we were on the tail end of an op, but we had to pack things up for the
day.  Do you mind if I go to sleep?"

She felt absurdly offended.

"Not in the least," she told him in an icy little voice, and picked up
a magazine.  Unfortunately it was Elle and her French not being above
average, looking at it was a complete waste of time; even the prices of
the various way-out garments displayed in its pages meant nothing to
her, because she couldn't remember how many francs went to a pound.

"You're a very touchy girl," observed her companion, his eyes shut, and
while she was still trying to find a suitable report to this remark:

"Am I right in suspecting that this--what's his name--the Medical
Registrar was the first man you ever thought you were in love with?"

She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the day bed

"I won't stay here!"  she exploded.

"You have no right..  you don't even know me ... ouch!"

She had put her injured foot to the ground and it had hurt.  The doctor
got out of his chair in a patient kind of way, lifted the stricken limb
back on to the day bed said: "Lie still, do--and don't be so
bird-witted," and went back to his chair.  His voice was astringent,
but his hands had been very gentle.

"And don't be so damned sensitive;

I'm not a young man on the look out for a girl, you know.  I'm
thirty-five and very set in my ways--ask Julius.  " He closed his eyes
again.

"I'm ever so safe, like an uncle."  There was a little pause, then he
opened one eye.

"I like that pink thing and your hair hanging loose."

Letitia had listened to him in amazement and a kind of relief because
now she could think of him as she thought of Julius; kind and friendly
and big brotherish.  Two short months ago, if Mike had said that, she
would have been in a flutter,

now it didn't register at all--at least, she admitted to herself, it
was nice that he liked her hair.  She took a quick peep and was
disappointed to see that his eyes were closed once more.

He wasn't asleep, though.

"Where is your home?"  he asked presently.

She cast Elle aside with relief.

"Devonshire, near Chagford--that's a small town on Dartmoor.  Father's
the rector of a village a few miles on to the moor."

"Mother?  Brothers and sisters?"  His voice was casually inquiring.

"Mother and four sisters."

His eyes flew open.

"Are they all like you?"

She wasn't sure how to take that, but she answered soberly: "No,
they're all pretty.  Hester--she's the second eldest--is married, so's
Miriam, she comes after me, and Paula's the last."

"And where do you come?"

"In the middle."

"And your eldest sister--Margo, isn't it?  She's George's'friend?"

"Yes, they trained together.  Margo's away on holiday.  She's going to
get engaged any day now."

He opened an eye.

"I always thought," he stated seriously, 'that the young lady about to
be proposed to was suitably surprised.  "

Letitia giggled, and just for a few moments, in her pink gown and her
shining curtain of hair, looked, even with the freckles peppering her
nose, quite pretty, so that the doctor opened the other eye as well.

"She and Jack have known each other ever since she was fifteen, but he
went abroad--he's a bridge engineer, so Margo has gone on working while
he got his feet on the ladder, as it were, and now he's got a marvelous
job and they can buy a house and get married."

"And you will be a bridesmaid at the wedding, no doubt?"

"Well, no--you see, we drew lots and Miriam and Paula won.  It's a bit
expensive to have four bridesmaids."

The corners of his firm mouth twitched faintly.

"I daresay two are more than ample.  I have often wondered why girls
had them."

She gazed at him earnestly as she explained:

"Well, they make everything look pretty--I mean, the bride wants to
look nicer than anyone else, but bridesmaids make a background for
her."

"Ah, yes--stupid of me.  Do you set great store on bridesmaids,
Letitia?"

She was about to tell him that she hadn't even thought about it, but
that would have been a colossal fib; when she had imagined herself to
be in love with Mike, her head had been full of such things.

"I used to think it was frightfully important, but now I don't imagine
it matters at all."

"You know, I think you may be right."  He heaved himself out of the
chair and stretched enormously.

"I'm going to get us a long cool drink and ask Stephens if we can have
tea in half an hour.  Can I do anything for you on my way?"

She shook her head and sat back, feeling the sun tracing more freckles
and not caring.  She wasn't sure what had happened, but she felt as
though Jason Mourik van Me had opened a door for her and she had
escaped.  It was a lovely feeling.

The drinks were long and iced and he had added straws to her glass.

She supped the coolness with delight and exclaimed: "Oh, isn't this
just super?"  then felt awkward because he might not find it super at
all.

"Very."  He was lying back again, not looking at her.

"Do you suppose you could remember to call me Jason?  I call you Tishy,
you know, although on second thoughts I think I'll call you Letitia, I
like it better."

"Mother always calls me that, but they call me Tishy at the hospital,
and sometimes my sisters do too when they want me to do something for
them."

They had their tea presently in complete harmony and she quite forgot
to wonder where Georgina and Julius had got to, and when Nanny came out
with Ivo in his pram and Polly got on to the doctor's knee, she lay
back, listening to him entertaining the moppet with a series of rhymes
in his own language, apparently quite comprehensible to her small ears.
She watched him idly, thinking that it was pleasant doing nothing with
someone you liked.  She gave herself a mental shake; only a very short
time ago she hadn't liked him, but when she tried to remember the exact
moment when she had stopped disliking him and liking him instead, she
was unable to do so.  Her thoughts became a little tangled and she
abandoned them when Jason broke in on her musings with the suggestion
that she might like to recite a nursery rhyme or two and give him a
rest.  She had got through "Hickory, Dickory, Dock' and was singing "
Three Blind Mice' in a high sweet, rather breathy voice when Georgina
and Julius joined them and the little party became a cheerful gossiping
group, with Ivo tucked in his mother's arms and Polly transferred to
her father.

"Ungrateful brat," remarked Jason pleasantly.

"Letitia and I are hoarse with our efforts to amuse her and now she has
no eyes or ears for anyone but her papa."

"You got back early?"  Georgina asked, and smiled a little.

Jason repeated the tale of the workman and his pickaxe and everyone
laughed, then the men fell to making plans for their trip on the
following day until Jason said:

"I'll carry Letitia indoors, I think, she doesn't want to get chilled."
He got up in leisurely fashion.

"Where is she to go?"

"The sitting-room--we'll have drinks, shall we?  No, better still, take
her straight up to her room, will you, so she can pretty herself up,
then you can bring her down again."  Georgina looked at Letitia.

"You're not tired, Tishy?"

"Not a bit--how could I be?  I've been here all day doing absolut&ly
nothing.  It's been heavenly, but I feel an absolute fraud."

"Until you try to stand on that foot," remarked Jason, and picked her
up.

"Back in ten minutes," he told her as he lowered her into the chair
before the dressing table in her room and went away at once.  She
barely had the time to pick up her hairbrush before Georgina came in.

"Don't try and dress," she advised, 'or do anything to your hair," and
when Letitia eyed her doubtfully: " You look quite all right as you
are.  "

She went away too, so Letitia brushed her hair and creamed her freckles
and sat quietly, not thinking of anything very much until Jason came to
carry her downstairs again.

The evening was one of the best she could remember, for she felt quite
at ease with Georgina and Julius, and as for Jason, his easy
friendliness made her oblivious of her appearance and she even forgot
her freckles.  She reminded herself that two months ago, out with Mike,
she would have been fussing about her hair and wondering if her nose
were shining and whether she had on the right dress.  With Jason it
didn't seem to matter he hardly looked at her, and when he did it was
in a detached way which didn't once remind her that her hair was loose
and a little untidy, and her gown, though charming, was hardly suitable
for a dinner party.  He carried her up to bed presently and before he
left her took a good look at her ankle.

"Quite OK," he pronounced, and wished her goodbye, because he and
Julius would be leaving very early the next morning.

The house, after they had gone, seemed large and empty, a fact to which
Georgina agreed, giving it her opinion that it was because they were
two such large men; all the same, the two girls contrived to spend a
pleasant day together, with Stephens and the gardener to carry Letitia
down to the garden and the two babies to play with.  Julius telephoned
twice, the first time shortly after they had arrived, and the second
time a few hours later, just as the girls were going to bed.  Letitia
wondered what Jason was doing, but she didn't like to ask Georgina,
who, for some reason, didn't mention him at all, but when Julius
telephoned the next morning, she couldn't refrain from asking at what
time the men might be expected back.

"Well, there's no telling," explained Georgina.

"They both drive fast and awfully well and I daresay they'll take it in
turns, which means that they'll do it in about six hours.  They can do
seventy on the motorway, you see, and that's almost all the way.
They'll be here for tea."

And she was right.  Letitia was entertaining Polly with a demonstration
of "Here's the church, here's the steeple' when she heard men's voices
and looked up to see them strolling towards them.  Neither looked in
the least tired, although they ate an enormous tea.

"No lunch?"  asked Georgina.

"Well, my love, I had promised myself that we would be home for tea,"
Julius smiled at his wife, 'and Jason liked the idea too.  "

Letitia watching them, thought how wonderful it would be to be loved as
much as that.  She sighed, and Jason asked at once: "Are you tired?

Do you want to go indoors and rest?  "

She shook her head.

"No, oh, no, thank you."

His voice was kind.

"One more day and then I should think you might try some gentle
exercise.  How does the ankle feel?"

She hardly noticed when the others went indoors and Jason started to
tell her about Edinburgh and their meeting.  She was surprised when
Julius came out to ask them if they wanted to go in for drinks before
dinner.  The day, though pleasant, had been long, now the evening was
going far too quickly.

The next few days went quickly too, each one speedier than its
predecessor, or so it seemed because she was enjoying herself so
much.

It was a week after her accident, when she had been hobbling very
creditably for a couple of days, that Julius gave her his verdict that
she was to all intents and purposes, cured.  Jason wasn't back from
hospital, she was sitting with Georgina and him, lingering over tea,
watching Polly tumbling around on her short fat legs, and thinking how
content she was.  But it couldn't last, of course;

she said at once: "Oh, that's good.  Do you think that I should go
straight back to St.  Athel's?"

"Lord, no, Tishy.  A week's leave you can stay here if you care to we
love having you."

She smiled at them both because they were so kind and they must have
wished her out of the way on occasion.

"You're awfully kind," she told them, 'but I'd love to go home.  If I
could have a lift up to town I could catch a train.  Would you think me
very ungrateful if I went tomorrow?  "

"Yes, very," said Julius promptly.

"Make it the day after."  He smiled as he spoke.

"Do you want to collect more clothes before you go?"

"No, thanks, I've some things at home they're a bit old, but I shan't
be going anywhere, so it won't matter."

So it was settled, and when Jason came home nobody thought of
mentioning it to him and she didn't like to say anything herself,
although presumably, as Julius was still on holiday, it would be Jason
who would have to give her a lift.  It wasn't until the next morning,
after he had left the house, that Georgina remarked: "Oh, by the way,
Jason says he'll take you all the way, Tishy, if you don't mind leaving
quite early in the morning."

Letitia buttered a piece of toast and sat looking at it.

"I couldn't let him do that," she said at length.

"I mean, it's miles away, even in that car of his."

It was Julius who answered her.

"Well, he'll be home after tea, why don't you talk to him about it
then?  And if you'd really rather go by train, he can still give you a
lift up to town."

So she was forced to contain herself until the early evening, for Jason
was late home.  By the time he strolled in they were all in the drawing
room with the children in bed and dinner but half an hour away.  Julius
got up to get him a drink.

"A bit of a rush?"  he wanted to know.

"The Commando went wrong--he picked up eventually, but it lost us a
couple of hours, we didn't finish until six o'clock."

Georgina glanced at the carriage clock on its bracket.

"You made good time."

He had taken a seat at the other end of the sofa where Letitia was
sitting.

"The car went well."  He looked at Letitia.

"How far to Chagford, dear girl?"

She jumped because she hadn't expected his question.

"Well..  yes, the thing is Georgina told me..  it's very kind of you to
offer me a lift, but I really can't..  if you wouldn't mind dropping me
off at Paddington..."  She stopped, aware that she wasn't making much
of a success of it.

"I think you've got it wrong," explained Jason, at his most placid.

"I'm going down to Plymouth tomorrow I have to.  I might just as well
take you as not the car's empty and I'm not going more than a few miles
out of my way.  It's no sacrifice on my part, Letitia."

She told herself that she was relieved to hear that even while a faint
prick of annoyance shot through her; would it have been such a
sacrifice if he had been asked to drive her down to Chagford?

Probably; he had called her touchy, hadn't he?  And damned sensitive,
too and he had wanted to go to sleep instead of talking to her.  That
still rankled a little.  He must find her incredibly dull after the
glamorous young ladies he was doubtless in the habit of escorting.  She
said in a wooden voice: "Well, thank you, I'll be glad of a lift.

When do you want to start tomorrow?  "

"That brings us back to my question.  How far to Chagford?"

"A hundred and eighty-seven miles from London."

"A good road?"

She frowned in thought.

"Well, I don't know it very well.  It's the M3 and then the A30 for the
rest of the way, more or less."

"Good enough.  We'll go round the ring road and pick up the motorway on
the other side of London.  Leave at nine sharp?  You'll be home for
tea."

"It's quite a few miles to Plymouth from my home," she reminded him.

"That's all right, Letitia," he told her pleasantly.

"I enjoy driving, it makes a nice change from theatre, you know."

"That's settled, then," said Georgina comfortably.

"Let's have dinner, Mrs.  Stephens has made a special effort by way of
a farewell gesture to you, Tishy, so we mustn't spoil it."  She turned
to Jason.

"You'll be back in a day or two, won't you?  Spend a day or two here on
your way home."

"Thanks, George, but only an hour or so--I can't expect Has to do my
work and his for ever."

"You do his when he goes on holiday, but I know what you mean.  Still,
we'll see you when we come over on holiday."

"Of course.  Julius and I might even get in some sailing."  A remark
which triggered off a conversation about boats which lasted through
dinner, and although the talk became general afterwards, Letitia, on
her way up to bed an hour or so later, discovered that beyond casual
remarks which she could count on the fingers of one hand, Jason hadn't
talked to her at all.  She went to bed a little worried, for it augured
ill for their journey the next day.  Would they travel in silence, she
wondered or should she attempt to entertain him with lighthearted
remarks about this and that?  It was a great pity that she knew nothing
about sailing and not much about fast cars.  And it would bore him to
talk about his work.  She was still worrying away at her problem like a
dog at a bone when she at last fell asleep.

CHAPTER THREE

it was a glorious morning and bade fair to be a hot day; the tan jersey
suit was going to be far too warm before very long.  Letitia wished she
had something thinner to wear, until she saw that Jason intended
travelling with the BMW's hood down.  She prudently tied a scarf over
her hair, assured him that she liked fresh air, bade her friends
good-bye and got into the seat beside him, eyeing the restrained
elegance of his cotton sweater and slacks; he was a man who looked
elegant in anything he wore, she considered, blissfully unaware of the
price he paid for such elegance.

"Warm enough?"  he wanted to know, and when she said yes, nodded
carelessly and with a last wave took the car down the drive, past the
little lodge and into the lane.

"Nice day for a run," he observed, then lapsed into silence.  Now would
be the time, thought Letitia, when she should embark on a sparkling
conversation which would hold him enthralled, but there wasn't an idea
in her head, and the harder she thought, the emptier it became.

"Ankle all right?"  asked her companion, and she embarked with relief
on its recovery, her gratitude to Julius and Georgina and himself, and
how much she had enjoyed her stay at Dalmers Place.  But even repeating
herself once or twice couldn't spin her colloquy out for ever; she
lapsed into silence once more, looking at the scenery with almost
feverish interest in case Jason should imagine that he might be forced
to entertain her.

They were slowing down to go through Epping when he said blandly:

"This erstwhile young man of yours did he train you to speak only when
spoken to?"

She was instantly affronted.

"What a perfectly beastly thing to say!

Of course not.  I I can't think of anything to talk about, if you must
know.  "

"Dear girl, I'm in the mood to be entertained by the lightest of chat,
and surely you're used to me by now Big Brother Jason, and all that."

She laughed then and he said at once: "That's better.  I thought we
might stop for coffee before we get on to the motorway Windsor,
perhaps, with luck we should be able to lunch in Ilminster, unless
there is anywhere else you would prefer?"

She shook her head.  She didn't know of any restaurants as far-flung as
that; when she had gone out with Mike he had taken her to unpretentious
places where he always made a point of assuring her that the food was
good however humble the establishment appeared to be.  She suspected
that his ideas of good food weren't quite in the same category as
Jason's; certainly the hotel where he chose to stop for coffee was a
four-star establishment, the kind of place Mike would have considered a
great waste of money.

She savoured the luxury of their pleasant surroundings and began to
enjoy herself.  Jason was a charming companion and amusing and not in
the least anxious to impress her.  They went on their way presently,
nicely embarked on the kind of casual talk which demanded very little
effort and allowed for the maximum of laughter.  Letitia hardly noticed
the miles as they slipped by under | the BMW's wheels, and when they
stopped in j Ilminster, she said regretfully: "How quickly the time has
gone!"

The doctor smiled gently, remarking merely that he was hungry and hoped
that she was too as he ushered her into the George Hotel.

"See you in five minutes in the bar," he suggested, and left her to
tidy her wildly untidy hair and re-do her face.  The freckles were
worse than ever, she noted with disquiet, and then decided to ignore
them;

Jason had said he liked them.

The hotel was a pleasant place.  They had their drinks and then ate
their lunch with healthy appetities; cold roast beef, cut paper-thin,
with a salad so fresh that it looked as though it had just been picked
from the garden, and a rhubarb pie which melted in the mouth to follow,
accompanied by enough clotted cream to feed a family of six.

They washed down this splendid meal with a red Bordeaux and rounded
everything off with coffee before taking to the road once more, making
short work of the miles to Exeter, and once through that city and out
on to the Moretonhampstead road, with the hills of Dartmoor ahead of
them, they slowed down so that they might miss nothing of the scenery
around them.

Somehow it didn't surprise her to learn that the doctor had been that
way before, she suspected that he was a man who got around quite a bit
without boasting about it--all the same, she was able to point out some
of the local sights as they went along, and when they had gone through
Moretonhampstead and slowed down still more to go through Chagford, she
told him about the Grey Wethers stone circle close by before directing
him to turn off the road and take a winding lane leading off towards
the heart of the moor.

"It's such a small village that it isn't on all the maps," she
explained, 'and the road isn't very good, although a few people use it
when they want to see Yes Tor, but most of them go from the Okehampton
road, it's easier.  "

Her companion grunted and dropped to a crawl; the lane had become
narrow and winding,

sometimes passing through open wild country with enormous views, and
then dipping into small, densely wooded valleys which defied anyone
passing through them to see anything at all.

"We're almost there," offered Letitia placatingly as Jason swung the
car round a right-angled bend, and you won't need to come out this
way;

there's a good road over the moor that will get you on to the Tavistock
road.  " She pointed down into the valley running away to their left.

"There's the church."

The lane became the village street with a scattering of cottages on
either side before it widened into a circle with an old-fashioned
drinking trough for horses in its centre.  The church lay ahead with
the rectory alongside, a wicket gate separating its garden from the
churchyard, past which the road wandered off again, up the hill on the
other side.  Jason, still crawling, afforded Mrs.  Lovelace, who ran
the village shop and post office, and was the natural fount of all
local gossip, an excellent opportunity of taking a good look at both
him and his beautiful motor-car as he turned into the rectory gateway,
slid up its short drive and stopped soundlessly before its porch.

The garden had appeared to be empty, but all at once it was full of
people; her father coming round the side of the house to meet them--a
middle-aged, rather portly man, of medium height and with a cheerful
face, and her mother, who rose, trowel in hand, from the middle of a
clump of lupins ornamenting the herbaceous border, and four girls, all
pretty, who came tearing out of the door to cluster round the car.

Letitia cast a lightning glance at her companion and found him to be as
placid as usual, only his brows were raised a little and a smile tugged
at the corner of his mouth.

The introductions took quite a few minutes and the doctor bore up under
them with equanimity.  They were out of the car by now and Letitia,
having made Jason known to her parents, started on her sisters.

"Margo," she began, 'back from Scotland, I daresay you've seen her at
St.  Athel's, and Hester, she's married to a doctor in Chagford, and
Miriam who's married to a vet in Moretonhampstead, and this is Paula,
who's still at school.  "

He shook their proffered hands and submitted to a battery of eyes
without appearing to mind.

"A little overpowering," murmured the Rector as Letitia was drawn, with
a lot of talking and laughter, into the family circle.

"So many women--of course, I'm used to them, bless their hearts, but
they might possibly strike terror into a stranger's heart."

The doctor laughed: "Hardly that."  He turned round to look at them,
gathered in a charming bunch round Letitia.

"You must be delighted to have them all home together," he observed to
Mrs.  Marsden.

She smiled at him, a small, still pretty woman.

"Yes, it's wonderful, and it happens so seldom.  How kind of you to
bring Letitia home such an unfortunate accident..."

"I was the cause of it, Mrs.  Marsden."

She shook her head.

"But not to blame; Letitia wrote and told me exactly how it happened;
it was hardly your fault that she was pushed into the road."  She
looked with interest at the BMW.

"It's a beautiful car.  Doctor..."  she wrinkled her nose, "I'm so
sorry, I've forgotten your name."

"Jason."

She smiled at him.

"Such a nice name.  You'll stay to tea?"

"I'd like to very much."

"That will be delightful," observed the Rector, who had joined them
silently.

"You and I will be able to hold a rational conversation and let these
featKerheads gossip themselves to a standstill."  He beamed at his
visitor.

"Do come inside are you by any chance interested in porcelain?  I have
one or two pieces of which I'm very fond, they are in my study..."

"Tea first decreed his wife firmly.

"Perhaps afterwards, if Jason has time."  She turned to look at the
doctor.

"You're more than welcome to stay the night, we have any number of
empty rooms."

"I should have liked that, but I have to be in Plymouth this evening,
but perhaps I might call on my way back and be shown the porcelain?"

"Splendid--I shall look forward to it," his host agreed.

"And now--tea."

They had the meal round the large rectangular table in the dining room,
because, as Mrs.  Marsden explained, they had never quite got used to
the idea of just a cup of tea and a biscuit.

"When they were younger, the girls had long cycle rides to and from
school and always came home famished, and the Rector usually finished
his visits about half past four or five, and somehow, even though all
the girls are away from home, excepting Paula, we keep to the old
habit."

If the doctor found a table spread with a starched white cloth, plates
of bread and butter, scones, little dishes of jam and cream, a variety
of small cakes and a large fruit cake only waiting to be cut, a little
different from his own idea of tea, he said nothing--indeed, he made a
hearty meal, equally happy discussing eighteenthcentury soft paste
figurines with the Rector and the pleasures of living in rural
surroundings with his hostess, while goodnaturedly answering the
questions the girls put to him--all but Letitia, who was a little
silent; it had just struck her that she was unlikely to see him any
more.  He had only taken over Julius's work at St.  Athel's to oblige
him, and Julius was due back--he would go back to his own country and
become, in time, a vague someone she half remembered.  Even while the
thought crossed her mind, she knew that wasn't true; Jason wasn't
someone easily forgotten.  She longed to ask him what he was going to
do in Plymouth, and when Paula, who had no inhibitions about asking
personal questions when she wanted to know the answers, asked just
that, Letitia listened with both ears, while at the same time gazing
attentively at her mother, deep in a tale about repairs to the organ.

"What are you going to do in Plymouth?"  Paul asked with shattering
directness.

"I have to meet someone."  The doctor's voice was mild.

"I bet it's a date--or are you married?"

He laughed at her, not in the least put out.

"You might call it that, and no, I'm not yet married."

The word yet worried Letitia.  Did that mean that he was about to get
married?  It seemed likely, and she was a little surprised to find that
the idea didn't please her at all, which, for a girl who had recently
broken her heart over another man, seemed strange, especially as she
neither liked nor trusted men--young men--any more, although he had
assured her in the most avuncular fashion that he had no interest in
her, hadn't he?  which meant that she could like him without changing
her ideas.  She frowned and then smiled when he spoke to her.

"I'm coming back this way in a couple of days, Letitia just for an hour
or so.  Will you be here."

"Oh, yes I'm not going anywhere."

He nodded.

"Good.  If your ankle is up to it, you shall show me some of your
beloved tors."

"You could see them just as easily from Plymouth," pronounced Paula.

"With that car of yours, it would only take you..."  she paused,
'though perhaps it would be wasting your time I mean, you can see a for
any time you're this way, but if you've got a date.  "

She was frowned and shushed into silence.

"Oh, all right, I won't ask any more questions and I'm sorry if I was
rude I was only trying to save your time; Tishy knows the country round
here awfully well.  She goes about looking in hedges and badgers' setts
and birds' nests and things she'll be better as a guide for you than
anyone else I know, and if you're not stuck on her, you'll pay more
attention to the tors, won't you?"

This outrageous speech brought a choked back laugh from the doctor, a
surge of colour to her knowledgeable sister's cheeks and a chorus of
protest from everyone else.  When it had died down Mrs.  Marsden said
apologetically: "I'm sorry that Paula has been so rude.  I don't think
she meant to be impertinent; the trouble is that in these days the
young are encouraged to speak their minds."

Jason's face was calm and placid once more.

"Don't apologize, Mrs.  Marsden.  I have a young sister myself and I'm
quite accustomed to her expressing herself in much the same way."  He
smiled at Paula, who grinned back, quite unrepentant.

"Have you any more brothers or sisters?"  she wanted to know.

"Four other sisters," he told her with a twinkle, and the rest of the
girls, but not Letitia, chorused:

"Five of them--just like us."

Letitia found four pairs of eyes turned on her "Tishy, you didn't tell
us."

"I didn't know."

"Oh, Tishy darling--' it was Paula again, 'why didn't you ask?  I know
you don't like men any more, but Jason's used to girls--I mean sisters,
if you see what I mean."  She smiled in a kindly way atLetitia, who was
fuming silently.

"I expect he thinks of you as a kind of sister--and sisters ask
questions," she shot a look at Jason.

"Don't they?"

She looked round the table triumphantly and her father remarked
dryly:

"I think it must be very nice for Jason to have five sisters, but I

wonder if they annoy him sometimes?  "

"Oh, frequently.  Luckily the four eldest are married so their husbands
get the lion's share of them, and I don't see a great deal of Katrina,
the youngest."

The talk became general after that and not long after Jason declared
that he would have to go.  Everyone went outside to see him off with a
great deal of waving and a host of instructions as to the best way to
go, and a reminder that he was to call in on his way back.  Letitia
watched him drive away, her temper still doubtful, for he had said
almost nothing to her other than the briefest of good-byes; she went
back indoors with her sisters, feeling peevish.

But it was impossible to feel put out for long;

she hadn't seen any of them, save Margo, for some time, and there was a
great deal to talk about.  The evening flew by, and when she went to
bed she was so tired that she went to sleep as soon as her head touched
the pillow.  And in the morning she had no chance to be by herself,
even if she had wanted it.  Margo was going back to St.  Athel's after
lunch, and before she went she wanted to hear all the latest news of
Georgina and the hospital too, and now that Paula had gone off to
school and Miriam and Hester had gone to their own homes, they had the
time for a talk while they did the household chores together.

The house seemed very quiet after Margo had gone, Letitia left her
father to work in his study and joined her mother in the garden.  It
was a gloriously hot day, and Letitia lay back on the grass, aware that
the sun was playing havoc with the freckles again, while her mother's
gentle flow of conversation eddied and flowed round her head;

it was the kind of conversation which needed almost no answering, and
Jason wasn't mentioned once.

She borrowed her father's car the following day and drove her mother
into Chagford to have coffee with Hester, and then on to
Moretonhampstead to have lunch with Miriam and admire the baby.  It was
almost tea time when they left, and that evening her mother had to
attend the Women's Institute, which meant that Letitia got the supper
ready while she was away, played a rather one-sided game of chess with
her father, and took Shep, the old retriever, for his short evening
amble.  She thought she wasn't in the least tired when she went to bed,
but she slept at once, to wake to yet another lovely morning.  Her
ankle felt fine again and there was nothing for her to do at home; a
walk would be splendid and perhaps resolve the puzzling restlessness
she seemed unable to shake off, so that when her mother suggested that
she might like to go for a ramble up towards Yes Tor, she was more than
ready to agree.

Half an hour or so later, the washing up done and the beds made, she
set off, wearing old slacks because of the brambles, and a cotton shirt
which had seen better days, and because there was no one to see, she
had simply tied her hair in a ponytail.

Her path led her away from the road which ran through the village, and
presently it wasn't a path at all, but a well-worn track running over
grass and heather.  It plunged presently into a charming little wood
which filled the whole of the valley between her and the tor.  She
would sit there, she promised herself, before climbing the hill on the
other side.  She meandered along, looking where she was going because
of the ankle, and wondering at the back of her mind why Jason hadn't
telephoned to say when he would be coming;

perhaps he had thought better of it--perhaps the date Paula had asked
about really was a date, after all.  Had he imagined that she would
stay at home every day in the hope that he would come, or didn't he
mind if he never saw her again, despite his friendly suggestion about
the tors?  She was uncertain--that was Mike's doing; he had said one
thing and meant another, and for all she knew Jason was like that,
too.

She was half-way through the wood, looking for somewhere to sit, when
she saw the boy.  He was lying a few yards from the path, on his
stomach, his head turned sideways away from her, resting on his arms. 
A gipsy, she guessed;

they often spent a few days tucked cosily in the valley and nobody
minded, for they were only a small party of two or three caravans and
bothered no one.  She said hullo as she passed him, slowing her steps
in case he woke up and wanted to talk, but he didn't answer.  She
walked on and then stopped.  Supposing he wasn't asleep?  He could be
ill--dead even.  She went quietly through the bracken and bent over
him.  He wasn't asleep, but neither did he see her properly.  His face
was white and his eyes, half open, were clouded.  She knelt down beside
him and took a closer look.  Here was a very sick boy, and in a high
fever;

she wondered how long he had been there and why no one had come to look
for him, and when she took his pulse it was far too rapid and when she
felt his skin it was hot and dry.  She would have to get help;

it would mean leaving him lying there, but there was little chance of
anyone coming along the track--she might wait all day.

The gipsies usually camped down by the little stream which ran through
the wood at the bottom of the valley, where it branched away towards
the open country again; Letitia had passed the rough grass track
between the trees only minutes before.  If he had come from there, the
chances were that they hadn't missed him yet.  She took a last worried
look at the boy and ran back along the path and down the track.  It led
steeply downhill, winding and uneven between the trees, until it
resolved itself into a delightful small clearing, with the stream
skipping and rushing over the grey stones of its bed, and the trees
encircling it, so that everything was shaded and cool, and but for the
birds, very quiet.

She had been right; the caravans were there-two of them, with a little
tent pitched between them, the horses hobbled close by and a lurcher
dog tied to a caravan wheel.  It barked when it saw her, but the bark
sounded appealing more than menacing, and when she called "Hullo
there!"  no one answered at all.  She stood still for a moment,
wondering what to do, when she caught a faint sound from the caravan
furthest from her.  A little nervously she crossed the grass and
knocked on the open door, and when she heard the sound again, went
in.

It was dark inside and very hot and smelly too, and amidst the
furniture crowding its interior, an old man lay on a bunk bed against
one wall.  He was ill too; even in the half-dark she could see that.

She said at once in her practical way: "Hullo--you're not well, are
you?  What can I do to help?"

He muttered and mumbled at her and finally waved a feeble arm towards
the door.

"The other caravan?"  she asked, and he nodded.

It was as crowded as the first one, more so, because here were two
people, a youngish man and a woman.  The man appeared to be
unconscious, but the woman, Letitia was relieved to see, looked as
though she might be strong enough to talk.

"How long have you been like this?"  Letitia asked her gently.

The woman stared at her, blinking uncertainly.

"A day--two, I don't know."

"The boy--I found a boy.  Is he yours?"

The dark eyes came alive for a moment.

"Yes--he's ill too?  He went to find someone."

"Listen," said Letitia, "I'm going for help--I shan't be long, can you
hang on for a little longer?  My father will get a doctor to come.."

"The parson?"

"That's right.  I'll see to your son too.  Don't worry."  She looked
around her and found what she was searching for; water, cooled in the
kettle--^ great black kettle dumped on the floor under a table.  She
filled a mug and gave some to the woman, then wetted the man's lips
before she crossed to the other caravan and gave the old man a drink
too.  Then she fetched a pan and filled it with water for the dog--the
beast would be starved as well as thirsty, tied up like that.  Her eyes
lighted upon a hunk of cheese on the table;

she snatched it up and offered it to the poor creature, who demolished
it in a couple of gulps.  The horses would need attention too, but they
would have to wait a little longer.  She started back up the track,
going as fast as she could.

Where it joined the main path she paused.  Perhaps she should get the
boy to the caravans first and make him as comfortable as possible
before she went for help, but with all the will in the world, she knew
she couldn't do it; he was far too big for her to carry, and to drag
him over the rough ground would be madness--besides, her ankle, though
mended, might not stand up to such treatment.  She turned to the right,
in the direction of the village, barely a mile away.

The sight of Jason, coming along between the trees at a steady,
unhurried pace, would have filled her with surprise, but all she was
conscious of was relief.  She said desperately: "Oh, there you
are--what a mercy!"  She gulped deeply, being still short of breath
from her haste.

"They're all ill--the gipsies--and there's a boy."  She waved an arm
behind her.

"The dog's starving too, and there are two horses..."

She felt his hands, firm and reassuring, on her shoulders.  He didn't
waste time repeating her not very clear remarks, nor did he ask what
she meant by them.  He asked in a calming voice: "Where are they?  Take
your time it will be quicker in the long run."

He was right; Letitia took several long, steadying breaths.

"Down that track there's a small clearing at the bottom, there are two
cara vans there.  The boy's along this path I think he's
unconscious."

"Lying on the path?"

"No to the left, a few yards from it, you can see him..."

She felt herself pressed gently down on to a fallen tree.

"Sit there.

I'll get him first, then you can show me where the others are.  "

Letitia sat, suddenly tired, wondering if she had dreamed it all.  But
not the boy, at any rate;

within a very few minutes she saw Jason coming back, the boy in his
arms.  As he reached her, he said in an easy voice: "Now, dear girl,
lead the way," and she started off down the track once more, but more
slowly this time because though Jason was a giant of a man, the boy he
was carrying must have been quite heavy.

They reached the clearing without mishap, and the dog, hopeful of more
food, strained at its chain and barked its head off.  The old man
opened his eyes as Letitia went into the caravan and mumbled something
as the doctor laid his burden down on the second bunk.

"The boy first," said Jason, and took off his jacket and cast it
through the door on to the grass outside.

"The others are in the caravan over there, I suppose?"

"Yes--do you want me here?"

"Not for the moment--see if you can get a kettle of water going, they
need cleaning up, and perhaps you can cool some it for them to
drink--boiled water can't do them any harm, whatever it is."

She nodded wordlessly and crossed over to the larger caravan, found
another kettle, already half filled with water, and set it on a Primus
stove.  There were a great many dirty cups and plates about too; she
collected them up and piled them into a tin bowl and carried them
outside; presently she would wash them up.  She found a bucket too and
fetched water from the stream, then gave it rather awkwardly to the
horses before beginning a hunt for something to give the dog.  The
cupboards were well enough stocked with food; she selected a packet of
Rich Tea biscuits and a tin of corned beef, mixed them together on a
plate and laid it before the dog, who polished it off with delight,
washed it down with more water, and then allowed her to take him off
his chain, tie a length of rope to his collar, and fasten him to a
nearby tree, where he lay down at once and fell asleep.

The kettle was on the boil when she returned and as the woman was
dozing still, she went to see what the doctor was about, for it seemed
to her that he was being a very long time.

The caravan seemed hotter and gloomier than ever as she went in, and
smaller too by reason of his size, but he had got both of his patients
out of their outer garments.  They lay in a smelly heap in one corner
and he was bending over the boy.

"There you are!"  he exclaimed, his tone implying that she had been
somewhere or other enjoying herself.

"I wish I had my bag with me.

We'll have to get help as quickly as possible, I fancy.  Can I leave
you to get these two reasonably clean and give them a drink?  And throw
out as many clothes as you can, will you?  I'm going to have a look at
the others.  "

She did as he had bidden her, although to get the occupants of the
caravan really clean was beyond her, but at least she bathed their
faces and hands and unearthed fresh blankets before she tossed their
discarded clothing out on to the grass.  She was barely finished when
Jason joined her.

"The woman's not too bad," he told her.

"The man needs attention as soon as possible; he and the boy and the
old man must have been ill for several days.  The woman told me that
there's another caravan expected this evening.  I think the best thing
we can do is to get this lot to hospital, get the place cleansed and
wait for the arrivals.

They might be able to take over the animals they're friends of these
people, I presume.  "

It was a relief to have someone there, making decisions in a calm
way.

Letitia nodded.

"I'll go and wash the other two," she told him.

"The old man has a rash on his chest, but you'll have seen that."

She went to pass him, but he caught her by the arm and swung her round
to face him.

"Yes, dear girl.  Typhoid."

"Ty..  oh!  Are they bad?"

"If you mean are they going to die, no, I don't think so not if we can
get them to hospital within a reasonable time."  His hand was still on
her arm.

"Have you by any lucky chance had a TAB injection lately?"

"Yes, a month ago we had a carrier on the surgical wards."

"Splendid, so you're safe."  He took his hand away and gave her a
little push.

"Off you go to your tasks.  I'm going back to your home to ask your
father to telephone the local doctor and arrange for someone to stop
the other caravan when it comes.  You'll be all right here?"

"Yes.  Jason, no one's had typhoid..."  Her eyes were a little worried,
though her voice was as matter-of-fact as his.

He smiled reassuringly.

"I shall stand by the gate and bellow," he told her, 'then I shall come
straight back.  " He turned away.

"Tot ziens."

She had no idea what that might mean, but it sounded cheerful.  She
called "Bye," and made her way over to the second caravan, and
presently, armed with more warm water and soap, began her work.  The
woman, when her face had been bathed and her hair tidied and she had
been got into a clean garment, looked hearteningly better, but the man
hardly stirred.  Letitia gave them both a drink and went to see how her
other patients were faring.  The old man was still muttering, but the
boy looked a little better.  She went outside again and added the
clothes from the other two to the pile on the grass and went to put on
another kettle, giggling a little as she did so; it reminded her of an
old film, where invariably in an emergency hot water was called for,
whether it was needed or not.  Now there was no emergency any more,
only a need for her to wash her hands.  A cup of tea would have been
welcome, but there was nothing safe to drink from.  She was drying her
hands on the seat of her slacks when Jason came back, and it wasn't
until she saw him coming towards her that she realized just how glad
she was to see him again.

CHAPTER FOUR

he was carrying his bag under one arm and she recognized the family
picnic basket in his hand.  In the other he held a small suitcase.  He
put it and the picnic basket down under the trees and came towards her,
moving with a calm air of purpose which she found reassuring.

"Hullo," he greeted her.

"What pillars of strength your parents are.

Your mother had the basket packed within five minutes--you've had no
lunch, have you?  Sit down now and eat something and drink the tea. 
"

"I'm quite all right," she began.

"I know that, but do as I say, or you won't be of much use later on
when there'll be work to do.  Your father telephoned the local
doctor;

he's on his way.  Once he's seen these poor souls, we can get them
away.  " He started towards the caravans.

"I'm going to take another look--go and eat your sandwiches, and save a
cup of tea for me."

She was glad of the food and still more of the tea, but she wasted no
time on her scratch meal.  Five minutes later she was beside Jason as
he examined the boy once more.  He looked round as she sidled past the
table and chairs and cupboards.

"Your Doctor Robinson has asked for a couple of ambulances; it's going
to be quite an exercise getting the four of them down to the road, but
once they're away the third caravan can come in and take over the
animals while the Health people get these places fumigated."  He nodded
towards the pile of clothing outside.

"I'm afraid that lot will have to be destroyed."

Letitia was giving the old man a drink.

"Father has a stock of clothes he keeps, he'll fit them out again.  The
jumble sales, you know."

The doctor looked a little at sea, but it was hardly the time to go
into the manifold blessings of the village jumble sale--besides, she
could hear footsteps.  They belonged to Doctor Robinson, who greeted
her with the freedom of an old friend and edged past her to join Jason.
Presently the two men went over to the second caravan, to join her
after a few minutes.

"No doubt of it," pronounced Doctor Robinson, 'it's typhoid^ all right.
Luckily you happened to come this way, Tishy, and luckier still that
you have had your TAB so recently.  I've just been suggesting to our
good friend here that you should both go to the Isolation Hospital and
get cleaned up.  " He eyed Letitia's person.

"Nothing smart you mind parting with, I daresay?  All old stuff?"

She was on the point of replying when Jason said: "I asked your mother
to put a few things in a case for you you can change in the hospital,
and leave that stuff to be burnt."  His tone implied that it should
have been burnt months ago, so that when she asked: "And what about
you?"  her voice was tart.  How dared he criticize her clothes; that
her slacks were a bit shabby she was bound to admit and the cotton
shirt had seen better days, and neither had been improved during the
last few hours, but what could it matter to him anyway?

"Oh, I've a change of clothes," he told her carelessly

"Perhaps you would make sure that they're more or less ready to go?"

His voice was that of a consultant asking a nurse on his ward to carry
out his instructions;

kindly, distant and polite.  Letitia found herself obeying.  She was
rather despairingly searching for some sort of nightwear for the boy
when she heard voices and the tramp of purposeful feet, and peered
round the door to see the clearing suddenly full of men ambulance men,
clad in protective clothing, bearing stretchers.  They started about
their business with cheerful competence and one by one the patients
were strapped to their stretchers and borne away, leaving the two
doctors, the horses, the dog and herself.

"They'll be along to get this lot cleaned very shortly," observed
Doctor Robinson.

"They'll take you along in one of their cars, I daresay can't offer you
a lift myself, I'm afraid."

"The animals," said Letitia, not caring a great deal as to the
arrangements suggested.

"I won't go until there's someone to look after them I'll wait until
there's someone...1 daresay they'll be here before the caravans are
sealed."

To her surprise Jason agreed with her.

"That dog looks as though it could do with some exercise and I need to
stretch my legs.  I'll free the horses too and then get them tied where
they can get at the grass."

"The dog won't understand," persisted Letitia, aware that she was being
childish about the animal.

"Probably not, but I'll talk to these gipsies when they get here and
his boss won't be away all that time, you know.  Typhoid isn't the
long- drawn-out business if used to be now that we have
Chloramphenicol."

"Yes...1 was just wondering if I could have him at home with me I know
I have to go back in a day or two, but Paula will look after him and
Shep and Bossy won't mind.  Do you suppose he would stay?"

"Probably.  There's no harm in trying the boy could collect him when
he's better."

Doctor Robinson closed his bag.

"Well, I'll be on my way--you two will be all right?"  He shook hands
with Jason, pinched Letitia's cheek and started off along the track.
Before he disappeared from view he turned to call: "I'll tell those men
to hurry themselves if I should meet them."

He was barely out of sight when Jason declared that he would see to the
horses at once and then attend to the dog.

"Well, I'll start getting the caravans ready for the men," declared
Letitia, ever practical.

"Empty cupboards and drawers and get the canned stuff out of the
way--the rest of the stuff will have to be dealt with, I suppose?"

"I should imagine so.  Do you want any help?"  He had picked up a
bucket and was already walking away from her.  She said "No," because
in the circumstances it would have been silly to have said "Yes," the
question having been rhetorical.  She plunged into the nearest caravan
and worked with such a will that by the time the men arrived she had
almost cleared the second one as well.  Of the doctor there was no
sign; presumably he had gone with the dog.  She went forward to meet
the Health team, uncertain as to what she should do next; when he
appeared silently from the thickly growing trees at the side of the
clearing, the dog at his heel.  From then on she had no need to do
anything; he seemed to know exactly what was needed, what had to be
done, and who was to do it, and while he made no attempt to interfere
in any way Letitia could see that he was regarded as being in charge of
the business.

It was late afternoon by now and she was hungry again as well as
longing for a cup of tea.  The men worked fast, though; presently they
declared themselves satisfied with their work and prepared to go.

"And you go with them, dear girl," Jason advised her.

"Take your case with you I'll wait until these other folk arrive,
arrange about the horses and see about the dog."

There was something in his voice which made her say "Yes, Jason," in a
meek voice other own, pick up the case and join the Health team.  One
of the men took the case from her with a cheerful:

"Come along, miss," and she found herself walking away beside him, the
other men trailing behind her, while their leader stopped to speak to
Jason.  She wondered, as she went, when she would see him again perhaps
she wasn't going to.  The thought stopped her in her tracks; she wanted
to see him again.  Just once more, she pleaded silently, even if he
calls me dear girl in that offhand voice and doesn't really look at me
if only I were pretty, he might.  She followed the men up the track,
feeling light-headed probably, her common sense told her, because she
was so empty inside, but her heart gave her another reason: she had
fallen in love with Jason Mourik van Me, and although common sense
pointed out that she couldn't have done anything sillier or more
unsuitable, her heart would have none of it.  Common sense at times
could be a dead bore, said her heart, and love was often silly and
unsuitable and sometimes hopeless.  As long as she remembered that and
started, without waste of time, to forget him, not much harm would have
been done.  The thing was to be practical about it and use her good
sense.

Her father had always said that she was the only one in the family
blessed with that commodity;

now was the time to prove it.  She plodded on, not feeling in the least
sensible, longing to relieve her pent-up feelings with a good cry.

She saw him two hours later; he was waiting for her outside the
hospital, leaning up against the BMW's sleek bonnet and talking to one
of the doctors, but he saw her as she walked through the door and as
the other man walked away called: "Over here, dear girl--what an age
you've been, though I must say the result seems worth it."

She had wondered how she would feel if and when she saw him again, but
she had imagined nothing like the wild rush of feeling which caught at
her breath, but she snatched at the remnants of it and said sedately:

"I'm sorry if you've been waiting, I didn't know..."

He looked surprised.

"You didn't imagine that I should leave you stranded here, did you?  I
did what was necessary and managed a lift back to your home to fetch
the car."  He smiled at her, his eyes crinkling into little wrinkles at
their corners.

"I like the outfit--and the hair's very smart, even though it does turn
you into a young lady."

What had he considered her to be before, for heaven's sake?  she
wondered crossly; she had only washed it and coiled it in its usual
knot on top of her head, and as for the dress, there was no knowing why
her mother had chosen to pack the flowered cotton shirt waister which
she had been keeping to go to church in--it was the only decent thing
in her wardrobe at the rectory, except for the jacket and dress she had
travelled in, but at least she felt clean once more.

Jason opened the door.

"Jump in," he invited, and she jumped.

The BMW made short work of the journey to the rectory, and beyond a
number of observations concerning the gipsies, and his assurance, in
reply to her question, that the third caravan had arrived, had parked
on the edge of the wood, had taken the horses into its owner's care,
and had handed over the dog without demur for the time being, the
doctor had little to say.  And nor had Letitia;

she had too much to think about.

They were accorded a welcome fit for heroes and led indoors into the
dining room, where the lurcher, a little bewildered, sat in an old box,
being sized up by Shep and Bossy the cat.

"I've a meal ready," exclaimed Mrs.  Marsden.

"You must be famished, the pair of you.  Sit down, do, and when you've
finished you can tell us all about it--what excitement--those poor
souls..."  She departed kitchen wards her voice becoming fainter and
taking on strength as she returned with a tureen of stew, its fragrance
filling the pleasant old-fashioned room.  She bade her husband fetch
the vegetables and began to ladle their supper into plates, an act
which the lurcher found sufficiently encouraging for him to sidle
forward, eyeing Shep and Bossy warily.

"Presently, my dear," Mrs.  Marsden admonished him.  She sounded
absentminded; she had just noticed the expression on Letitia's face and
wondered what had happened to put it there.

"You'll stay the night, of course," she bade the doctor in a motherly
voice.

"Such a pity Paula is at Miriam's she would have loved to have seen
you."

"May I?  I had intended to cross on the midnight ferry.  I could drive
through the night, of course..."

"Out of the question, Jason--you know you're tired, you need a good
night's sleep.  Leave as early as you like in the morning.  We're early
risers and in the summer it's no hardship to get up with the sun."

"How kind you are."  Letitia, her eyes on her plate, was aware that he
was looking at her.

"If I could leave before seven o'clock?  I could go through Dover; it's
a good deal nearer."

"Which way do you usually go?"  asked the Rector.

"Harwich, it's convenient for Dalmers Place."

Letitia looked up.

"Are they expecting you?  Shouldn't you telephone?"

He was making great inroads into his supper.

"I would be grateful if I might do so."

"And arrangements about your crossing tomorrow?"  the Rector wanted to
know.

"I'll take my chance."  Jason smiled at his host.

"I shall have time to look at your porcelain after all, sir."  Which
meant that after supper he disappeared into the Rector's study, the
dogs in attendance, and Letitia saw nothing of him until bedtime, and
that for a brief moment only, when he wished her good night and
good-bye at the same time, with the observation that he would be gone
before she was up in the morning, and that in a cheerfully casual tone
which precluded her from saying more than that she hoped that he would
have a good journey.  She even smiled at him with false brightness and
thanked him once more for doing so much to help her, but all the answer
he gave was: "Ah,

but I didn't see the tors after all, did I?  "

Letitia wakened very early and lay listening to the familiar little
sounds the old house made in the quiet-hours; creaks and sighs and the
occasional tip-tap of small mouse feet behind the wainscoting.  Neither
she nor Bossy, who had chosen to sleep on the end of her bed, took any
notice of these faint noises; they were too used to them, but they both
sat up at the sound of almost silent footsteps crossing the landing and
going downstairs.  Jason, already up.

Presently Letitia heard his voice, very quiet, in the garden, and when
she peeped from her window it was to see him going down the drive, the
lurcher on a makeshift lead, Shep trotting with them.  She could dress
quickly, go downstairs and get his breakfast--she was on the point of
doing just that when she remembered that he had evinced no strong
desire to see her again; indeed, he had taken it for granted that she
wouldn't be up so early and had made no effort to persuade her to do
otherwise; she remembered, too vividly, his careless good-bye.  It
would serve him right she decided pettishly, if her mother overslept
and he got no breakfast at all, but this uncharitable wish war stymied;
she heard her mother go downstairs and soon after, the sound of Jason's
return.  There was nothing for it but to go back to bed.

Letitia sat up against the pillows, listening to their distant voices,
and sniffing at the delicious smell of bacon coming from the kitchen.
In a little while she heard Jason in the garden again and then the
click of the BMW's door.  He was going--she scrambled from her bed and
ran to the window, just in time to see the car's stylish back disappear
through the rectory gate.  The wish to throw wide the window and yell
at him to come back was very great;

there was so much she wanted to tell him--that he had helped her to
recover from Mike, that she liked him, that she would miss him.  She
would be able to say none of these things now; that she wouldn't have
said them in any case was a small point she chose to ignore.  All that
mattered was that he had gone.

"Don't be silly," she told herself sharply, and because bed was
impossible now, wandered downstairs in her nightie and barefooted, to
perch on the kitchen table and drink tea with her mother.  She wanted
to talk about Jason, but didn't; instead she plunged into plans for
going back to St.  Athel's with a fervour which deceived neither her
mother nor herself.  Though both ladies were well aware that that
wasn't what she wanted to talk about, Jason wasn't mentioned once.

The day went slowly by, following the exact pattern of all the Sundays
Letitia could remember at home.  Church, breakfast, church, lunch, then
help with Sunday School and Evensong to finish the day.  Not that her
father expected her to attend all the services;

all he asked was that one member of the family should be there.  She
shared the day with her mother, because Paula wouldn't be home until
after tea, and sat quietly through Matins, listening to her father's
voice and the enthusiastic singing of the surprisingly large
congregation, and admiring, as she always did, the carving on the rood
screen, and all the while her thoughts were miles away, with Jason
Mourik van Me, driving his BMW back to his own country.  And Holland to
Letitia, who had never travelled outside the land of her birth, might
just as well have been darkest Africa or Cape Horn, all equally
unreachable.

She spent her last day at home picking raspberries, helping Paula to
cut out a dress when she got back from school, and cleaning, with great
care, her father's small collection of figurines.  Jason had liked
them, her parents told her happily;

what was more, he had known what he was talking about.

"A

knowledgeable young man," went on the Rector as he watched his daughter
at work.

"I should like to know him better--he's quite an expert on Coalport,
you know."  He added wistfully: "It's a pity he lives so far away."

Indeed it was a pity, agreed Letitia silently, and said aloud: "Yes,
Father."

"You won't be seeing him again?"  he inquired of her.

"No, dear--he only came to St.  Athel's to take over from Julius while
he took a holiday."  She made her voice light and disinterested, and
beyond declaring that it was a great pity that such a promising
acquaintance should come to an end, her father said no more.  She
applied herself to the cleaning of a much prized Shepherd Boy with Dog
and allowed her thoughts without any effort at all, to return to
Jason.

Back in hospital, she found the next few days difficult; for one thing
the recovery room without the possibility of seeing Jason from time to
time had become, for the moment at any rate, positively dull.  She did
her work with the high standard of efficiency demanded of her; she saw
the patients safely into theatre and then, after the surgeons had dealt
with them, received them back again and encouraged them to regain
consciousness once more, aided by all the latest gadgets science could
devise, and once they had opened their eyes she gave them something to
ease their pain, waited for their blood pressure to become normal once
more and then saw them safely back to their wards.

It was a busy way to spend a day, and never two days alike.  Each
patient was different and needed different things done for them; she
was kind and gentle and absolutely reliable, but behind her calm she
felt terrible; it was as though part of herself had gone with Jason the
important part, leaving only the out side of her, the part that showed,
to go on working and eating and talking and trying to sleep at night.
It began to show in her face and her friends were forced to admit
amongst themselves that Tishy had become decidedly plain just lately,
and some of them thought she might still be pining for the Medical
Registrar.

She was aware that her modest looks were suffering.  She spent more
time than she had ever done before on her make-up, but that didn't help
much.  It was Margo, meeting her on her way to dinner, who expressed
sisterly concern for her appearance.

"You look as though you need a good holiday," she remarked, 'even
though you've been home.  As it happens George wrote today asking me
down for my days off and wondering if you could come with me.  You
always have Saturdays and Sundays, don't you?  OK, I'll give myself a
week end and we'll go down to Dalmers Place next week-end.  How's the
ankle?  "

"Fine," said Letitia, trying to make up her mind if she wanted to go,
and added, unable to prevent herself.

"Will there be anyone there?"

"Lord, yes.  It's George's birthday we'll have to get a present."  She
frowned in thought, then went on: "Cor and Beatrix and Franz and the
older one, Karel, will be there too, but I don't think Dimphena can get
over until next week, but that Jason Mourik van Me is bringing his
youngest sister over--it should be fun.  Have you got anything to wear,
Tishy?"

"No," said Letitia instantly, seeing this as a sign from heaven that
she wasn't to go and not sure if she were glad about that or not.

Seeing Jason again would be wonderful, but it would be awful too.  She
wouldn't go.  This worthy determination was knocked for six by her
sister's next remark, though.

"Not to worry, I've some money tucked away and you can pay me back
later.  What do you need?"

"Nothing--that is, I don't think I'll go, Margo."

Her sister gave her a considered look.

"George will be very hurt if you don't, and she'll be bound to find
out, because Julius would tell her."

"Well," said Letitia reluctantly, 'in that case.  I've got that tan
thing and the blouse, I could go in-that, couldn't I?  I left that
pretty shirt waister at home--a pity.  I haven't anything to wear in
the evening, though there's that blue crepe that Miriam couldn't get
into because of the baby.  "

"That thing?"  Margo sounded scornful.

"We'll do better than that, love.  Are you off at four?"  and when
Letitia nodded: "Good, meet me in my room as soon after that as you can
manage, we'll go shopping."

They found what they wanted; a plainly cut silk voile with an elegant
line to it, in a pretty pale green, and because it was a little more
than Margo had intended to pay, they pooled what money they had and
found a coffee and white striped cotton dress, a straight sheath into
which Letitia's nice little figure fitted very well.

"No one needs to know where it comes from," Margo pointed out as they
hurried back to the hospital.

"It looks marvelous on you and they'll never guess that we got it at
the British Home Stores, and you've got that lovely suede belt that
will go with it exactly."  She gave a satisfied little nod.

"You'll look lovely, Tishy."

Letitia thanked her eldest sister and said she hoped so, all the while
knowing that her hope that Jason might find her lovely was just too
silly for words.  But the green dress was very pretty-he might at least
look at her.  She remembered the casual glances he had cast in her
direction;

perhaps this time he might look, really look at her.

They met the next morning and he hardly glanced at her on his way into
theatre, striding through the recovery room with a casual "Hullo, dear
girl," and not waiting a second for her to reply.  Not that she had
anything ready to say; she had been taken completely by surprise; she
had had no idea that he was in England, let alone anaesthetizing that
morning.  She stood holding a recovery tray in much the same manner as
a Grecian girl holding an urn, her mouth slightly open.  Then she
snapped it shut and almost dropped the tray as Julius strolled through
in his turn.  He stopped, however, wished her good morning as though he
really meant it, and expressed pleasure at her impending visit.

"Nice to have a few friends from time to time," he remarked.  "How's
the ankle?"

She told him that it was fine, remembering that Jason hadn't bothered
to ask, then flushed under his kindly eye.

"You look as though a couple of days off would do you good," he
commented as he went on his way.

It was to be a busy morning with a long list, being added to every now
and again as emergencies came in, and Letitia was kept busy, but not so
busy that she didn't see Jason each time he came into the recovery
room, and each time she couldn't help but notice and he was going out
of his way to be friendly, so that by the end of the morning she was on
top of her small world again.  To come plummeting down again at the end
of a long, hot afternoon.

She had gone into the little cubbyhole where they washed the
instruments and replenished the trays and trolleys.  Mrs.  Mead had
already gone, the room was quiet after the day's ordered bustle, she
stood leaning against the sink, still filled with odds and ends which
needed to be washed and dried and thought about Jason being so nice he
had been like that at Dalmers Place when he had told her he was like an
uncle .  she wished, upon reflection, that he hadn't said that, perhaps
when he saw the new green dress .  her thoughts were disturbed by the
swing of the theatre door and the deliberate tread of feet.

She had thought that the men had all gone, but it was Julius's voice:

"Coming back for dinner, Jason?"

"Good of you, old man, but I've a date."

"With Tishy?"

Jason's careless: "Lord, no," seared her like a hot iron.

"Wibecke van Kamp is over here, you know we're dining together."

"Good-looking girl knows how to wear her clothes too."

"Handsome, I should have said."  Jason's voice was dry, and in the
little pause which followed Letitia summoned up the courage to walk out
and let them know that she was there; eavesdropping was a rotten,
low-down trick and none knew it better than she, being a parson's
daughter, but she was halted by his voice.

"How's Tishy?  She looked a bit down in the mouth when I got here this
morning."

"Well enough, I should imagine she and

Margo are coming down for the week-end.  She'll be glad to find you'll
be with us as well, I think.  "

"What makes you say that?"

"You've been kind to her, and she needed kindness after that young fool
cut her up--for a little while she's been hating all of us; he said
some pretty cruel things to her, so Georgina told me.  It can't be much
fun to have your dreams torn up so ruthlessly--and it must have been
worse for a girl like her."

"No looks, you mean?"  It was Jason's voice, and Letitia closed her
eyes.

"But she's not as plain as all that, you know, and she's a nice
girl."

"That's just what I mean," observed Julius.

"There aren't many around like her any more."  They were strolling to
the door now.

"Where are you dining?"

Letitia didn't hear Jason's reply because the door had swung to behind
the men, but it would have made no difference.  She had become deaf and
blind and dumb for a while while her head buzzed with a variety of
painful thoughts, which changed, within seconds, to sudden rage; he was
as bad as Mike had been--worse, because he hadn't seemed like that at
all.  True, he had never been in the least interested in her, but why
had he pretended to be friendly when all the while he hadn't meant
it?

She began on the sink's contents, making such a clatter that the
theatre staff nurse came out to see what was the matter, and when she
got off duty at last, her cross face kept even the closest of her
friends at bay, so she was left to brood over a book and peck silently
at her supper, a circumstance so unusual that the young ladies around
her looked at her with something like dismay;

little Tishy was known for her sunny disposition and no one had ever
seen her quite like this not even when Mike had thrown her over.

And the efforts she made to get out of going with Margo were useless;

she didn't choose to tell her sister her real reason for not wishing to
go to Dalmers Place, and the excuses she thought of wouldn't hold water
with Margo.  She got through Friday somehow, wishing Jason a good
morning cold enough to freeze his bones when he arrived for the first
case, and carrying out his instructions and giving him her reports of
the patients' conditions in an austere manner which caused the faithful
Mrs.  Mead to look at her as though she were out of her mind.

It was at the end of the list, after everyone had gone and Letitia was
setting the recovery room to rights in case an emergency should come in
during the week end, that Jason came back again.  And this time she was
in the middle of the room, rotating slowly, making sure that everything
was just so before she left.

"Ready in half an hour, Letitia?"  he asked her cheerfully.  Obviously,
she thought pettishly, her coolness of manner had escaped him, and what
business was it of his when she left?  Margo had told her that they
were going down by train and would be met at the station.

"No.  There's plenty of time before Margo and I leave, doctor."

He raised faintly amused brows.

"I'm not sure what I've done, but it can't be so awful that you need to
call the doctor.  What's up, dear girl?"

She said levelly, her eyes on his face:

"Nothing--nothing at all.  It was quite a list, wasn't it?"

Either he had never heard of red herrings or he wasn't easily led away
from the matter in hand.

"Well, whatever the nothing is, you'd better get over it; it's George's
birthday tomorrow."

Letitia went a slow pink, a pale indication of the indignation burning
inside her.

"I hadn't forgotten."

"Good."  He glanced at the clock.

"Twenty minutes, then, at the front entrance--Margo already knows we're
going down together."  He smiled quite kindly and went away, leaving
her to rush round to the Home.

Margo could have let her know; she would have something to say to her
when they met.  Letitia changed in an increasingly bad frame of mind
and got to the entrance with one minute to spare, to find Jason and
Margo, on the best of terms, already there, so that, naturally enough,
she was ushered into the back of the car where she sat with her
thoughts, answering politely when spoken to and trying not to look at
the back of Jason's head, which, while not as interesting as his
handsome face, had its own endearing qualities.  The gay talk and
laughter of the two in front of her did nothing to make the journey
pleas anter either.

And when they arrived the house seemed full of people.  Georgina, of
course, looking so glowingly happy that she was beautiful, and Julius,
looking as he always did, completely content, and with them his
cousins.  Cor and Beatrix and Franz with an ecstatic Polly weaving
amongst them on her short legs, and there were two people Letitia had
never meet before too--Julius's eldest cousin Karel and a pretty girl
of fifteen or sixteen, Katrina, Jason's youngest sister.  They were
swept indoors with everyone talking at once, and presently Letitia and
Margo were taken up to their rooms, warned that dinner would be in half
an hour or so and left to unpack while they talked to each other across
the communicating bathroom.

"Don't change," Georgina had told them, as she went.

"No one will tonight--we're going to dress up tomorrow evening,
though."

A remark which filled Letitia with disquiet because she wasn't sure if
the green dress was grand enough after all.

She went downstairs with Margo in a little while and joined everyone in
the drawing-room, and because she wanted to avoid Jason, she went to
sit by Franz, and presently Karel joined them.  He was a dear, she
discovered, gay and amusing and with the happy knack of making her feel
that she was the prettiest woman in the room, a feeling which she
recognized as entirely false though it helped enormously, so that when
Jason did come over with his sister she was able to laugh and talk in a
perfectly natural manner--so much so, indeed that when they went in to
dinner, he bent his head to whisper: "So the nothing's gone, has it?"

Which brought it all back again even though she pushed it to the back
of her mind and prepared to enjoy herself.  It would have been
difficult to have done otherwise; she had Cor, bubbling over with
schoolboy high spirits, on one side of her, and onjthe other Karel;

between them they kept her entertained throughout dinner, and
afterwards, in the drawing room, she found herself with Katrina, who
was so very like Paula in her ways that she felt they had known each
other for a long time and readily agreed to go for an early morning
walk with her before they parted, on excellent terms, to go to bed.

It was going to be a blazing hot day, Letitia could see that the moment
she wakened the next morning, and a good thing too now she could wear
the British Home Stores dress.  It really wasn't bad at all;

the good suede belt lent it an air and her sandals, on bare feet,
matched quite well.  She tied her hair back and without bothering
overmuch about her face, went silently through the rambling old house
and down the stairs.

Katrina was already there in the hall, they found their way to a side
door and let themselves out into the garden, and although it was barely
seven o'clock, it was already warm.  They wandered along out of the
garden presently and into the lane with Katrina, talking all the time,
leading the way.  They had gone perhaps half a mile when she stopped
and exclaimed in a pleased voice:

"There is Jason!"  and there indeed he was, sitting in the hedge ahead
of them, chewing grass and contemplating the view.  He threw the grass
away and got to his feet and came to meet them.  His good morning was
bland.

"Now this is a surprise," he assured them, only he didn't look
surprised at all.

CHAPTER FIVE

jason took it for granted that they would enjoy his company, and as a
matter of fact, it would have been difficult to do otherwise; he could
be very amusing when he wished and he and Katrina were on excellent
terms with each other despite the difference in their ages.  They
strolled back to the house across the fields, and when Jason said:

"Run on ahead and tell Georgina we're on our way," Katrina obeyed at
once, flying away from them over the grass, turning to wave as she
disappeared through the gates leading to Dalmers Place.  Which left
Letitia making uneasy conversation with Jason, something she found
difficult enough to do, partly because she couldn't forget his cool
voice in the recovery room, and when he said in his kind way: "I like
that dress, Letitia," she felt sure that he was mocking her; it was a
dress, that was all.  To her mind it had bargain written all over it,
she couldn't believe that her companion wasn't able to recognize a
cheap garment when he saw one.

"It's from British Home Stores," she snapped, and realized that he had
no idea at all of such a place.  Well, she thought fiercely, it was
time he lea mt

"It's a chain store, like Woolworth's," she informed him crossly, 'they
have rows and rows of dresses, all exactly alike and all very cheap.
"

Jason had stopped to look at her and twisted her round to face him.  He
said in a measured voice.

"It doesn't really matter if it's sack or something dreamed up by
Christian Dior--the point is, it's pretty.  In fact it has the edge on
some of the ultra-fashionable clothes I'm expected to admire."

"Whose?"  she asked before she could stop herself.

He grinned down at her.

"Well, well--I was beginning to think you had no interest in
my-er--leisure hours.  I take girls out sometimes, you know--men do."
He put a finger under her chin so that she couldn't turn away from his
blue gaze.

"And we aren't all men like Mike, my dear."

He bent to kiss her cheek gently, tucked an arm under hers and went on
walking towards the house, talking about a variety of small matters,
for all the world as though they had never stopped.  She mumbled
answers and said yes and no and was glad when they went indoors and she
could escape to her room and tidy herself for breakfast.  She stared at
her face in the charming winged mirror; his kindness had hurt.  Which
was perhaps why she devoted so much other attention to Karel at
breakfast and played tennis with him for the greater part of the
morning.  And after lunch on the terrace, when Georgina had received
her presents, she had spent the afternoon with Katrina and Karel with
occasional games of tennis with Beatrix and Cor.  It was evening when
the celebrations really got under way; Letitia dressed in the green
silk, nervous that it wasn't quite up to the occasion, and though when
she got downstairs she saw that it wasn't, it didn't matter overmuch,
because its very simplicity made it look better than it actually was
and she was wearing the gold chain and locket her parents had given her
when she was twenty-one^ it was a large Victorian oval, heavy and
rather ornate, and showed up nicely against the plainness of the dress
and gave it an air of distinction.

Georgina, in guipure lace and the emerald earrings Julius had given
her, was holding court in the drawing-room, and as she and Margo went
in there was a burst of laughter which carried her well through drinks
and into dinner.  She had Karel next to her again and he stayed with
her when they all went back to the drawing-room, introducing her to the
guests who were beginning to arrive for the evening, and when someone
put on the music, he whisked her on to the floor before she had had a
chance to wonder if anyone would dance with her.  She didn't lack for
partners after that, for she danced well.  Only when she found herself
with Jason did her feet become clumsy, but presently, charmed by the
music and the pleasure of dancing with him, she forgot her awkwardness
and enjoyed herself.

"That was nice," she told him as the music stopped last, and smiled up
at him, almost pretty in the dim light of the wall sconces, but before
he could answer her she had been danced away by Karel, to circle and
sway and twirl in a very modern fashion which seemed a little
surprising in the strictly brought up daughter of a country parson.

But it didn't prevent her watching Jason revolving round the room in a
rather more civilized way with a pretty girl whose hair was golden and
whose dress must have cost the earth.  They disappeared into the garden
very soon, and Letitia dipped and swayed and smiled her way through the
endless dance, longing to run after them and see what they were doing.
There was a moon and the evening was warm--the garden was lovely;

sweet-smelling and romantic, and the girl was the kind of girl men
would kiss in the moonlight.  She ground her nice white teeth at the
very idea; if he asked her to dance again, she would refuse.  Only he
didn't ask her, and when the evening was over and they were all going
to bed, his good night was so casual it sounded like an afterthought;

rather as though he had forgotten to say good night to the dog, she
decided bitterly.

Everyone went to church in the morning; a convoy of cars, headed by
Julius's Rolls, followed by the BMW, the Mini driven by the just
seventeen-year-old Franz and last, the rakish Porsche belonging to
Karel, in which Letitia had contrived to get herself as passenger.

They filled two pews in the little church, and Letitia, squashed
between Beatrix and Karel, was very aware that Jason was sitting beside
her, so that instead of attending to the service she was worrying about
her hair being untidy at the back and whether the collar of her jacket
was just so.  Being in love, she mused silently while they sang the
last hymn, was an uncomfortable business.

They had a noisy lunch and then, because it was such a glorious day,
decided on a picnic tea.  Letitia, changing into the British Home
Stores dress, meditated on the advantages of being rich;

no need to worry about cutting sandwiches or hunting for paper bags and
rugs; Stephens, summoned by Georgina, had listened attentively and with
his usual fatherly air, and had disappeared with his habitual quiet,
and when they gathered in the hall later, there, just as she had
guessed, were the two picnic baskets and two rugs, folded neatly.

The men shared them out amongst themselves and the girls started off
ahead of them, Polly between Cor and Beatrix, Georgina and Margo behind
them and Letitia and Katrina bringing up the rear.  They were making
for the meadows, a quarter of a mile away, where they sloped down to a
small stream, a copse guarding the hill behind them.

It was pleasant there and cool, and the ladies of the party spread the
picnic, while the men got the spirit kettle going and the children
wandered off to look for fish in the stream.  It was all very peaceful
and Letitia, arranging slices of cake on a plate, wished it could go on
for ever.

The picnic was a tremendous success, largely because it owed nothing to
the modern aids of thermos flasks, cellophane-wrapped sandwiches and
potato crisps.  Georgina made the tea in a large brown teapot and Margo
cut bread and butter with a bread knife on a bread board, just as
though she was in a kitchen and not kneeling on the grass.  And
Letitia, having seen to the cake, unwrapped a jam sponge for the
children and a pot of Gentle men's Relish for the men, then started to
dole out the strawberries into little glass dishes.  The cloth, spread
on the grass, looked very inviting, they clustered round it in great
good spirits and ate everything there was before packing up in a
leisurely fashion with a great deal of laughing and talking.

"I shall have a nap," declared Julius, and stretched himself out and
closed his eyes, while

Georgina wandered off with Polly.  Letitia, getting to her feet after
strapping the picnic baskets, caught Jason's eye on her and spoke
hastily.

"I thought I'd..."  she began.

"Go for a walk?"  he interrupted her.

"I'll come with you."  He had her hand in his and was marching her away
before she could think of anything to say.  She was still cudgelling
her brains for a safe topic--something impersonal--the weather,
perhaps?  --as he led her up the field towards the copse which crowned
it.  Unlike her, he showed no signs of unease at their lack of
conversation;

he said nothing at all, only wandered along, with her in tow, whistling
under his breath.  A rough track led left and right away from them when
they gained the copse, circling the field on its outside, and facing
them was a gate; still silent, Jason fetched up against it, and Letitia
perforce stopped too.

From where they stood the view was charming;

all the soft sweep of the country beyond.  The gate gave access to a
large, irregular field with a hump down its middle, so anyone walking
along either of its edges would fail to see anyone or anything on their
opposite side until they were almost at the top where the ground
levelled out once more.  They stood side by side, silently
contemplating the scene until presently they saw Georgina and Polly
climb the narrow little gate halfway down the field, and start rambling
towards them, keeping close to the hedge.

They saw the bull seconds later, his great head raised, standing on the
other side of the hump, sniffing the air.  He began to move towards the
centre of the field, unhurriedly but with purpose, aware that there
were strangers in his field, although he wasn't able to see them
because of the hump.  As he began to amble up his side of the hump,
Jason said quietly: "George won't hear us if we shout, we're too far
away.  Go and fetch Julius, dear girl, tell him to run down the hedge
on that side and get George and Polly through the gate.  I'll stroll
down the middle and hold the beast's attention."  He turned to grin at
her.

"Possibly he's quite harmless, but we can't take risks, can we?"

Even at that distance, Letitia considered this description of the noble
animal's disposition to be quite inaccurate; he was plodding slowly up
his side of the hump still, looking anything but harmless, but she
wasted no time in saying so, only turned and ran as Jason vaulted over
the gate.

She ran well, and being country bred, found the stones and tree roots
and unexpected bumps in her path no obstacle besides, it was
downhill.

All the same, she was breathless when she reached the picnic party,
rather scattered by now, but Julius was still there.  He looked up in
astonishment at her headlong flight and was on his feet before she got
to him, tugging his arm with an urgent hand.

"Jason says come at once," she said breathlessly

"There's a bull George and Polly..."

"Show the way," Julius urged her, not stopping to ask questions, but
Letitia, needing no urging, was already starting back the way she had
come.  At the gate once more she paused.

"Jason said would you go down on that side she waved an arm, 'and get
them through that little gate half-way down while he heads the bull
off."

Julius nodded, vaulted the gate in his turn and began to run towards
his wife and little daughter, still pottering slowly along the hedge.

Letitia could hear their laughter now, faint still, mixed in with the
birds and the other summer sounds.

Jason was well down the other side of the hump now and the bull had
stopped to look at him, and George and Polly had paused because they
had seen Julius.  Letitia, from her vantage point at the gate, thought
Jason was getting dangerously close to the bull now and he had quite a
long way to run back too, and it was uphill; he would never do it.  She
went cold inside as she turned to see how Julius was getting on.  He
had snatched up Polly and had Georgina by the hand and was racing back
to the little gate; everything was going to be right after all, just so
long as the bull stayed where he was.

But he didn't he tossed his great head, then lowered it and advanced at
a sharp trot; he didn't think much of Jason, who moved back up the hump
to make sure that the others were safe, and they were; it remained only
for him to get himself away.  Letitia knew then that he would never do
it; the bull, with nothing else to occupy his mind, was bent on
reaching him as quickly as possible.  She climbed the gate neatly and
began to run down the hump so that the beast would see her too.  He was
still some distance away, but she didn't like the way he stopped in his
tracks when he caught sight of her and changed course in her direction.
But the small distraction had given Jason the chance he needed, he had
gained the crown of the hump and was racing towards her.  She turned
and ran too, breathless with fright, quite sure that she would be able
to get over the gate before the bull reached her.

But she need not have worried; Jason caught up with her within yards of
it, picked her up and tossed her over it as though she had been
thistledown instead of a healthy girl, and leapt after her.

She had fallen softly enough into grass and rather mushy weeds; he
plucked her to her feet and brushed her down, but the front of her
dress was stained and ruined; Letitia thanked heaven that it had been
so cheap and when he asked her if she was all right, nodded, staring at
him because, incredibly, he was laughing.  And he was only a little out
of breath too, whereas she had almost none at all, and what she had she
lost in a gasp of fright as the bull fetched up within feet of them,
only on the other side of the gate.  He glared at them for a moment,
then tossed his head and strolled away, and Letitia's gasp turned to a
weak giggle.

Jason laughed again, a great shout of laughter, and turned her round to
face him.

"Dear girl," he said, 'dear brave girl," and bent to kiss her.

Sudden tears filled her eyes.

"Oh, Jason," she wailed, "I thought..  "

She managed to stop herself just in time as he put an avuncular arm
round her shoulders and gave her a gentle hug, and presently, when she
gave a resolute sniff, took out his handkerchief and mopped her face
for her.  And only just in time, for Julius came round the bend in the
path to halt and say:

"You're all right, both of you?  I can never thank you enough."  He
smiled at them both, his face white and strained.

"Polly found it all quite fun."  His eyes slid over Letitia's blotchy
face.

"Though I can't say I did.  I left Georgina sitting in the hedge having
a little weep, but I had to make sure you two were all right--we saw
you running like hares."

"A nasty moment," agreed Jason, 'and if it hadn't been for our Tishy
here I don't think I should have made it.  " He took his handkerchief
from her hand and gave her a little push.

"Run down the path to George," he suggested, 'we'll follow," and when
she hesitated: " Go along, Letitia, we'll explain to the others.  "

She went then, grateful to him for realizing that she wasn't in a fit
state to answer a barrage of questions for the moment.  The rest of the
party had been on the other side of the stream when she had fetched
Julius; she could hear them now, pounding up the path, eager to help.

She heard Karel's: "I say, what's up?"  as she rounded the bend in the
path and saw George with Polly on her lap.  Polly was singing to
herself and her mother had finished her little weep.

"And if only," said Letitia to herself, "I could look like that when I
cry, instead of puffy and red."  She went and sat down in the hedge
too, saying brightly: "My goodness, what a scare!  I'm still
shaking--and I howled all over Jason, too."  She added: "He was
laughing!"

Georgina smiled a little.  Then do the strangest things sometimes.  You
were so quick and brave, Tishy.  Thank you, both of you," she kissed
Letitia's cheek.

"Weren't you afraid?"

"Terrified, and I should never have known what to do--it was Jason.  I
didn't know Julius could run like that."

"Julius can do anything," stated his wife simply.

"But you and Jason--I can never thank you enough..."  She broke off at
the precipitate arrival of Cor and Beatrix who flung themselves upon
her with cries of: "George, darling George, are you all right?  Julius
sent us to look after Polly so's you can rest a bit."

The two girls watched the children go, this time with a delighted Polly
between them.

"Dear Julius," said Georgina, "I expect he thinks I'm still crying."
They smiled at each other and Letitia said: "You don't look a bit as
though you had.  I expect I'm still blotchy."

"Only a little, and I don't think anyone will notice--sometimes men
don't see things which we think matter frightfully."

They got to their feet presently and followed the children, to join the
group standing by the gate, and after the episode of the bull had been
well and truly discussed they all wandered down to where they had had
the picnic, and everyone sat down again and talked about it still more.
Karel had attached himself to Letitia and his light, cheerful chatter
made her laugh a good deal as well as serving to sooth her jumpy
nerves, but even while she smiled at his jokes she was wondering why it
was that Jason had wandered off with Cor and Franz, with no more than a
smile for her.

Presently they began to wander back to the house in twos and threes, to
change for the evening before meeting in the drawing room for drinks.
Letitia and Margo were to be driven back to St.  Athel's later that
evening, and although no one had actually said so, she had taken it for
granted that it was to be Jason who would drive them, but when they
came down to the hall, it was Karel who was waiting for them, and going
the rounds, shaking hands and murmuring nothings.  Letitia, offering a
hand to Jason, could see no sign of disappointment on his face. 
Indeed, he wished her a good journey, assuring her that Karel was just
the companion to make the drive a pleasant one.  He made no mention of
seeing her again either, so that she said hesitantly:

"Well, I hope you have a good journey too, you and Katrina it was nice
meeting her, I shall tell Paula all about it when I go home."

Letitia stared into his impassive face, longing to say a great many
things she knew she would never utter.

"Good-bye," she said at last, and when he replied: "Tbf ziens} she
turned away with a puzzled face and promptly embarked on a gushing
conversation with Franz, who looked taken aback but was too polite to
show it.

She sat in front with Karel this time and he kept the conversation
going at a rate which rivalled his speed, and made her laugh a good
deal as well.  And when they arrived at the hospital and he suggested
that she might like to spend an evening with him, Letitia agreed,
mainly, as she admitted to herself later, because there was a chance
that he might talk about Jason.  They parted on the friendliest of
terms, and as she went with Margo to the Nurses' Home, her sister
remarked: "What a nice boy he is," and added innocently, "You get on
very well together, Tishy."

Letitia pushed the door of the home open and they went in together.

She said "Yes," suddenly beset with the appalling thought that perhaps
Julius, or worse, Jason, had told him to be nice to her.  They climbed
the stairs to the first landing, where Margo had her room in the
Sisters' wing, whereas Letitia was two floors higher.

"Tishy," began her sister, "Jason and I were talking--he has a plan;
did he tell you about it?"

Letitia mumbled a no and managed a yawn.  She didn't want to talk about
him.  She was still sore from his casual good-bye; she didn't like him
at all even while she loved him so fiercely.

"I'm tired," she declared, 'and I'm on early in the morning--won't
another time do to tell me?  I don't suppose it's important.  "

"Not really," Margo gave her a thoughtful look.

"Tishy, I was beginning to think you'd got over Mike; that you'd
discovered that he was the bad apple in the barrel, but I'm not so
sure."  She kissed her lightly.

"Poor little Tishy!"

"I'm perfectly all right and I've quite got over Mike," declared
Letitia peevishly, and at the same time wondered what Jason and Margo
had been planning together.  She wished Margo good night and went to
bed, telling herself that the quicker she got him out of her system the
better.

Impossible, because he was there the next morning, going unhurriedly
across the recovery room to theatre, bidding her a cheerful good
morning as he went.  She gaped, muttered incoherently at him and then
busied herself laying a tray which was already laid: she simply had to
do something to cover the wave of delight which had engulfed her; not
that it would have mattered if she had allowed her feelings to show,
for he didn't pause for one second, but disappeared through the doors
without a second glance.  Letitia didn't see him again until he came
out to inspect the first case an hour or more later; a gastrectomy that
wasn't looking too good.  They worked on the man together, silent save
for Jason's brief directions, and when the patient was fit enough to go
back to the ward, he went back into theatre with the smallest of
nods.

And so the day wore on, with their dinner cut short because an
emergency Caesarean was rushed in as the last case went down.  The
theatre filled rapidly; students, another doctor to see to the baby and
a nurse to see to the doctor, the surgeon and his assistant.  Sister
and a handful of nurses--and Letitia, waiting quietly by the door,
ready to take over the patient, her eyes on Jason, giving the
anaesthetic.  She had been with him when he had given the preliminary
injection and started the anaesthetic, placidly reassuring towards his
patient, talking in a quiet voice as he popped the needle in so that
the anxious young woman smiled as she closed her eyes.  Letitia
remembered that now as she studied his bent head--but only for a
moment, for the baby was there and everyone was smiling broadly, as
they always did when there was a Caesar in theatre.  When the small
creature gave a peevish whimper, she sighed with relief in unison with
everyone else there.  There was something dramatic about a Caesar and
satisfying as well.

Letitia took charge of her patient again, and when she had come round,
stood back so that Mr.  Toms, the surgeon, could announce the news that
she had a son before Letitia saw her back to the ward.  After that
there was the tidying up to do before she could rush down for some sort
of a meal.  She gobbled it as fast as she could and raced back;

the afternoon list was due to start in five minutes and Staff Nurse
Wills, who usually relieved her, had an afternoon off, leaving Mrs.
Mead and her to cope.  The list wasn't a long one, thank heaven, so she
got back, still chewing, with seconds to spare.

They were finished by half past four, and the last case had been
obligingly quick in regaining consciousness once more, so that soon
after five o'clock Mrs.  Mead was on the point of leaving, and Letitia,
slapping instruments into their proper places with brisk efficiency,
was trying to decide what she would do with her evening.  Not much, she
decided; she had very little money in the first place and what she had
she must save so that she could go home on her next days off--she liked
to go once a month, even though it meant going without puddings at
dinner and the cinema.  She would wash her hair, she decided, do her
smalls, make a pot of tea and eat the rest of the biscuits she had,
then have a leisurely bath before the others came off duty, and get
into bed early with a book.  She placed the last airway into its
correct position and skipped along to the changing room.  Jason was
leaning against its door, looking like a man who had never done a day's
work in his life.  He picked a thread off the sleeve of his elegant
suit and said: "Hullo, I've been waiting for you, Letitia."

The?  " It sounded stupid, but she couldn't think of anything else to
say.

"You."  He smiled and her heart turned over.

"Will you have dinner with me, dear girl?"

"No," said Letitia.

He sighed.

"I'm not supposed to be here, you know," he pointed out with patience,
'but something went wrong yesterday, didn't it?  --before then,
perhaps.  You closed up like a clam--I was rather looking forward to
the week-end at George's, but you had iced over.  only when you came
charging to my rescue at the picnic did you forget whatever it was.
What was it, Letitia?  "

He put out a hand and plucked her theatre cap from her head, so that
her hair stood out in untidy wisps around her face.

"Remember I'm only an uncle type--you can tell me."

"No," repeated Letitia, fighting a desire to fling herself at him just
as though he were an uncle-that was the last thing he was.

"Something someone said," persisted Jason, just as though she hadn't
spoken.  He watched her face.

"Something I said--ah, now we have it!

Tell me, dear girl.  It will be quicker, you know, for I intend to stay
here until you do.  "

She took a quick look; he meant what he said.  She took a deep breath
and keeping her eyes on his face, began: "I was here--last week, when
you and Julius came through after the list.  You were going out to
dinner with someone called Wibecke.  I was at the sink," she jerked her
head backwards, 'behind that door, and I was going to come out so that
you would know that I was there, only before I could, you said.  " She
paused, not because she had forgotten a single word of it, but so that
she might steady her voice.

"I remember exactly what we--what I said;

that you were a nice girl and not as plain as all that.  " He spoke
gently, his eyes very intent.

She looked away at last.

"That wasn't as bad as the bit before.  You said " With Tishy?  " as
though the very idea appalled you, and now you've got the cheek to ask
me out to dinner with you."  Her voice was bitter and regrettably
wobbly.

"Are you doing penance or something?"

She choked on her rage and when he put out a hand and turned her face
to his, she tried to pull away.

"No, don't do that, Letitia," he spoke firmly.

"I'm sorry you overheard what I said, but get this into your head--I
wasn't appalled, only very surprised.  You see, I had been warned that
you were off men for the time being; it never occurred to me that you
would agree to come out with me even if I had asked you, and I didn't
know you very well then, did I?  and I've known Wibecke for years.  And
as for the rest: you are a nice girl, and you aren't all that
plain--you grow on one, you know, and one day you will grow on some man
so much that he'll discover that you're the prettiest girl in the world
for him."  He smiled down at her.  You're a little goose, and I've been
clumsy and I'm more sorry than I can say.  I should like to take you
out very much.  The offer," he added gravely, 'is being made entirely
without pressure or suggestion from any one else."

It was weak of her to give in she knew that.  He thought of her as a
nice, plain girl, he had just said so, quite safe to take out and
unlikely to raise his pulse by a single beat.  But she knew that he was
a friend, when he added: "Wear that pretty green dress, dear girl," she
said quite meekly: "Very well, Jason."

CHAPTER SIX

because it was still early in the evening, he took her to a restaurant
which catered for theatregoers, Le Gaulois in Chancery Lane.  She had
read of it in the glossy magazines but she had never expected to see it
from the inside.  Jason ushered her in, explaining: "We're not going to
a theatre, but we can talk here in peace and eat early."

It was a small place and very French, already more than half full as
they were shown to their table.  When they were seated, Letitia asked
in a small voice: "Were you so sure that I should come?"

His brows rose a fraction, but his voice was friendly.

"I booked a table while you were changing."  He smiled a little then
and went on:

"I'm famished--we had a scratch meal at midday, didn't we?  We'll have
a drink and decide what to order, shall we?"

She sipped her Dubonnet and studied the menu.  There was a great deal
to choose from and to her at least it was wildly expensive.  She
remembered the canteen at the hospital, where they all counted their
money before they decided what to eat, and uncannily he read her
thoughts.

"The food's pretty basic at St.  Athel's, isn't it?  What does it cost
you to eat there?"

He asked the question with seeming idleness so that she was lulled into
an unthinking answer.

"Well, I try to keep it down to three or four pounds a day, less if I
can--we can't get pudding for that or any of the extras, but we all
have tea and biscuits in our rooms, you know, and we share those
round--and we buy chips."

His expression didn't alter, only his eyes narrowed so that she was
unable to read the expression in his face.  She went on: "Of course, we
all eat too much starch, but it's nice and filling even though it's
awfully bad for our figures."

His voice was pleasantly detached.

"There doesn't seem much wrong with yours, dear girl," and he twinkled
at her so nicely that she chuckled.

"Well, I run round rather a lot, don't I?"

"You do--you work damned hard.  I like your Mrs.  Mead, by the way.
What a sensible woman she is--your right hand, I presume."

The talk drifted to the shared interest of their work, and it was
several minutes before he asked:

"Now, what shall we have?  How about pate for a start?  We could follow
it with salmon--they do it very nicely here with asparagus tips and
quenelles of sole."

Letitia wasn't at all sure what a quenelle was,

but it sounded nice.  She agreed happily, disposed of the pate when it
came with real pleasure, and ate the salmon which followed it with an
excellent appetite, and when she sipped the wine he had taken time in
ordering, she said appropriately:

"Oh, claret, isn't it?"

He looked at her with some interest.

"How delightful to take out a girl who doesn't think only in terms of
champagne and sherry.  Where did you get your knowledge from?  Do wines
interest you?"

"I expect they would if I drank them more often," she told him
ingenuously.

"Father knows a lot about them and he says that everyone, women too,
should have a knowledge of them, even if they never get a chance to
drink anything else but the cooking sherry."

"Your father is a most interesting man."

She speared some salmon and popped it into her mouth.  She had
forgotten all about being awkward and disliking men; she felt, for the
first time in weeks, composed and assured.  It was a delightful
sensation, and went, like the excellent claret, to her head just a
little, so that she talked happily through the delicious trifle which
arrived after the salmon, and well into the coffee, quietly encouraged
by her companion, who, while not saying much himself, asked the right
questions in the right places and looked interested.  They sat a long
time over their leisurely meal, and when at length he drove her back to
St.  Athel's, she thanked him fervently for her evening.

Jason had got out of the BMW too, and they stood facing each other
under the bright lights of the Accident Room entrance.  She looked up
at him, glowing with her love so that her cheeks were prettily pink and
her eyes shone, and he stared back.

"Well, dear girl, that wasn't such an ordeal, was it?"  he asked.

"For a nice girl who isn't so very plain, you made a great success of
our evening."  His smile robbed the words of any unkindness.

"Looks don't count in the long run, you know, Letitia, but charm does,
and you have plenty of that--and mind you remember it.  I dare say
Karel asked you to go out with him?"  His voice had lost none of its
calm, and when she nodded: "He's a good chap--you'll enjoy yourself
with him."

The happy glow faded; this then was why he had taken her out--not so
much for the pleasure of her company but to prove to her that she
didn't need to worry about being dull or plain; that she could be an
amusing companion for any young man who chose to ask her out--to break
as it were the ice she had embeded herself in.  A kindly act, but had
he not, all along, begged her to con R

sider him as an uncle?  And now he had offered her avuncular advice!

She opened her eyes wide to hold back the tears, and managed to
smile.

"I'll take your advice, Jason.  It was a lovely evening."  She offered
a hand and had it gently engulfed.

"I hope you have a good trip to Holland, and please give my love to
Katrina."

He was still holding her hand.

"Oh, lord, I quite forgot that I was going to talk to you about her.
Never mind, Margo has it more or less fixed up."

She had no idea what he was talking about and when she asked all he
said was: "She'll tell you.  Good night, dear girl," and he didn't kiss
her, though she had hoped that he would.  She wished him good night too
in a sober little voice, then went through the door he was holding open
for her and ran across the bare, deserted expanse of the Accident Room
and into the passage beyond without looking back.  She made herself
think of nothing at all while she got ready for bed, but the moment the
light was out she was powerless to prevent her thoughts flooding back,
and after a little while she allowed them to take over, lying with her
eyes tight shut in the hope that sleep would come.  It was a long while
before it did, so that when she went on duty the next morning she
looked washed out and her eyes felt like hot coals in her head.

It was on her way to the canteen that she met Margo, who stopped her
with a sisterly: "Tishy, whatever is the matter?  You look absolutely
grim!"  And after a long look.

"Have you got a cold?"

Letitia shook her head, admitting vaguely to feeling tired.

"Well, it's a good thing you've got that holiday next week, isn't it?

Katrina's bursting with excitement.  " She paused and looked even more
narrowly at Letitia.

"You do know she's going home to stay for a week or two?"

"No."  The surge of excitement made it impossible to say more.

"Jason was going to tell you--haven't you seen him since we were at
Dalmers Place?"

Letitia nodded.

"Yes, last night."  She added:

"He said he'd forgotten to tell me something, but he'd leave it to
you--I didn't think it was anything much."

Margo looked a little amused.

"Katrina had never been anywhere else in England but London and Dalmers
Place, so she wheedled Jason into asking me if I'd ask Mother to invite
her to stay-you see, she rather took to you, Tishy, and she wants to
meet Paula.  So I telephoned Mother and of course she loved the
idea--you know how lost she feels with only Paula at home.  He's
driving her down before he goes back to Holland.

She'll be there when you go on holiday.  "

"Yes."  Did that mean that she would see him again?  she wondered.

"How long is she going to stay?"

Margo shrugged.

"I've no idea, but you'll be home for a week, won't you--and Paula will
be there--they're just about the same age.  If they get on well, I
daresay Paula will be invited back.  Nice for her."

"Lovely.  I think I'd better go to the canteen..."

Her elder sister looked her over with affection.

"Enough money for a good meal?"  she wanted to know.

Letitia nodded; food would choke her, there was far too much on her
mind.  She would go over to the home and make tea.  She had drunk one
cup of this calming beverage when she was called to the telephone.

"A man!"  shrieked a voice up the stairs, and Letitia, her head stuffed
full with Jason still, tore down to the ground floor, her shoes and cap
off, intent on getting there before he should become impatient and ring
off.  Only it wasn't Jason, it was Karel.

"Dinner?"  asked his cheerful voice at the other end of the wire, 'and
how about dancing afterwards?  " And was she free that very evening?

She said yes without pausing much to think about it.  Karel was fun to
be with and perhaps an evening out with him would shake her out of this
silly self-pitying state she had got into.  On her way back to her room
she wondered idly why he had asked her; certainly not because he
fancied her, of that she was quite sure.  They were very good friends,
but that was all.

Probably he wanted to tell her all about his blonde friend; even more
likely, he had quarrelled with that young lady and was intent on making
her jealous by taking Letitia out for the evening, something he could
safely do since neither of them were emotionally involved.  She drank
her cooling tea and began to tidy her hair; she was adjusting her cap
just so when a voice screamed up the stairs once more, begging her to
go down to the telephone for a second time and adding a rider to the
effect that it was a man again and would it be a good idea if Tishy had
a telephone installed in her room so that the speaker might be saved
the trouble of taking her calls.

She ran downstairs, making her excuses as she went, sure with childish
faith that this time it would be Jason.  It was.  His voice, calm and
friendly, sent a tingle of delight through her and took her breath, so
that her hullo was gruff.

"Ah, dear girl, I'm at your home with Katrina--I expect you know about
that by now."

"Yes."

"I intended driving back straight away, but your mother's offer of
lunch has made me change my mind.  I shall come up to London this
evening and cross over tonight.  Will you be free after tea?"

The tingle turned to a warm glow; he must like her just a little, if he
was going to ask her out;

even as she thought it she remembered she had just accepted Karel's
invitation.  She said in a small voice: "I'm going out with Karel."

"You'll enjoy that."  His voice, though she strained her ear to catch
any change in its tone, sounded as placid as it always did; she
wondered if he had put Karel up to it in the first place, and the idea
made her add snappishly: "Yes, I shall-he's such fun."  And then,
because her feelings were threatening to overcome her: "I really must
go, I'm on duty in five minutes."

"Of course, dear girl.  Any messages for your mother?"

"Please give her my love.  I hope you have a pleasant trip home."

There was no tinge of regret in his goodbye, so Letitia hung up and
tore upstairs to her room to put on her shoes and emerge a few seconds
later, looking neat and tidy and unnaturally prim--a magnificent effort
on her part when what she really wanted to do was to fling herself on
to her bed and howl her eyes out.

There was no time to indulge in such weak feelings, however.  She was
kept hard at work until she went off duty, and the serious business of
making the best of herself for Karel's benefit took all her attention
then--a waste of time and effort, it turned out, for although he was
pleased to see her and took her to one of the trendier restaurants for
dinner, it was obvious that his pleasure in her company was largely due
to the fact that she made a sympathetic audience while he alternately
sang the praises of the blonde and then, sunk in the depths of despair
because of their recent quarrel, begged Letitia for advice.

And when they danced presently, he kept up a monologue in her ear,
recalling how he and his blonde had danced together, and how wonderful
a dancer she was, so that Letitia felt she had two left feet and ought
not to be on the floor at all.  All the same, Karel was a dear, and
once he was on good terms with his girlfriend once more, or had found
himself another one altogether, he would be quite his old self.  As it
was, he had spared no expense on their evening and when he took her
back to the hospital, told her that she was a jolly good sort and
kissed her in a brotherly fashion, observing that she was a nice girl,
and she, heartily sick of his tepid compliment, thanked him with charm,
wished him luck with his blonde and took herself off to her room, where
she got ready for bed and presently, lying in the dark, indulged at
last her overwhelming wish to have a good cry.

The week before her holidays went surprisingly fast; for one thing,
they were busy in theatre, so that much of her free time was taken up
with getting her clothes ready, and for another, Georgina came up to do
some shopping and invited her to join her and Margo for tea at Fortnum
and Mason, luckily on an afternoon when she was free, for she liked the
elegant tea room and hoped that someone, during the afternoon, would
mention Jason.  No one did, though there was plenty of talk about
Katrina's visit.

"A nice child," said Georgina.

"You would think that being the youngest of such a large family she
would be spoilt, but she isn't--she's clever, of course--they all are.
That family has everything although none of them ever mentions it." 
She smiled at Letitia, listening avidly.

"Have another of these little cakes, Tishy, I'm going to; I shouldn't
really, for I might get fat and Julius will tease me."

Julius wouldn't do anything of the sort, thought Letitia; he would love
Georgina whatever shape she was; probably he thought she was the most
beautiful girl in the world.  She sighed, wishing with all her heart
that she might be loved like that.  By Jason, of course.

She went home by train, with Margo to see her off at Paddington and the
promise of her father to meet her at Exeter.

The train was full and hot and she slept uneasily, waking finally just
before they reached Exeter.  It was nice to see her father waiting on
the platform, she hugged him with delight and got into the car beside
him and they drove through the busy city streets and out on to the
Moretonhampstead road, and as they left the city behind them she felt
the breeze blowing coolly through the car windows.

"This is glorious," she told her father, and he smiled
understandingly.

"It's splendid to have you home, Tishy," he told her fondly, 'although
a week isn't long enough.  That nice child Katrina seems to be enjoying
herself, she and Paula get on very well together, but she's looking
forward to seeing you again.  Jason brought her down, of course--a
splendid man; knows about porcelain, too.  He much admired that Minton
par ian figure.  "

"The dancer?"

Her father nodded.

"He's fortunate enough to have a pair--children with dogs.  I imagine
he has quite a collection of his own, I should dearly love to see it."
He sounded wistful, so that she said robustly:

"Yes, I daresay.  Father, but you have some nice pieces yourself, you
know--what about that Derby biscuit figure?"

Her parent brightened.

"A splendid example," he agreed happily.

"Jason assured me that it was one of the best examples he had ever
seen."

Jason, it seemed, had impressed her father.  He had impressed her too,
though in a different way, but there was no point in thinking about
that now, so she asked about her sisters and kept the conversation
strictly on the family for the rest of their journey.

It was wonderful to be home, to be hugged and kissed by her mother,
embraced joyfully by Paula and Katrina, and then borne away to eat a
huge tea with everyone talking at once, making plans sufficient to last
a month, let alone a week.

"What happened to the gipsies?"  asked Letitia.

Her father sighed.

"They made a splendid recovery and discharged themselves two days ago.
They're back in their usual haunt and the boy came to fetch his dog
only this morning."

"But it's too soon."

"Yes, Tishy, by our standards it is, but not from theirs.  Probably
they'll regain their strength twice as quickly as any of us soft-living
people.  They're children of Nature, you know."

She registered a silent resolve to go and see them for herself; it
would have to be when Katrina wasn't about though, she didn't think
that Jason would want his young sister to go with her.  Her mind made
up on that score, she flung herself into the enthusiastic plans for the
week ahead.

The good weather held.  They were able to go somewhere everyday,
walking on Dartmoor, driving down to Dartmouth and Salcombe, laden with
the picnic basket and with Shep taking up much of the back seat.
Letitia drove, with Katrina beside her and her parents wedged in the
back, and once there, they bathed and lay about in the sun and ate
hugely, coming home in time to get tea before Paula got back from
school.  It was delightful.  Letitia, lulled by fresh air and the peace
and leisure of the countryside, felt her touchy nerves soothed, and
even though she wasn't happy, at least she was beginning to think
sensibly.  She could even listen to Katrina talking about
Jason-something which she did very frequently--without her breath
catching in her throat and her heart turning over.  She assured herself
that given time, she would be able to forget him; she had got over
Mike, now she would get over Jason--sentiments which did her credit and
held no water at all.  Jason wasn't Mike; he wasn't just any man, she
would never be able to forget him.  All the same, she tried hard and by
the Saturday morning, with only one day to go before she had to return
to St.  Athel's, she considered that she was well on the way to
relegate him into his proper place in her life--a casual acquaintance
whom it had been pleasant to meet but who could just as casually be
forgotten.  She assured herself of this fact repeatedly, with
absolutely no success, although she reminded herself that it was early
days yet.

Paula and Katrina were going over to the doctor's house to play tennis
after breakfast, which left Letitia free at last to visit the
gipsies.

She got up early, dressed without much thought as to her appearance in
slacks and a denim shirt, and went downstairs to get breakfast.  She
had it ready by the time everyone else came down, and the moment the
girls had gone she whisked through the chores, told her mother vaguely
that she was going for a walk, and set off.

She was glad to reach the trees, for the sun was already hot on her
shoulders, and once in their shelter she didn't hurry, but poked around
her as she went there was plenty to see; wild flowers of all kinds, a
multitude of birds and the wood's four-footed inhabitants.

She whistled to the birds as she strolled along the path, then stood
patiently waiting for them to reply, so that it took her some time to
reach the path which would lead her to where the gipsies were camped in
the clearing.  She turned down it, still not hurrying;

the girls wouldn't be home for lunch, her mother wouldn't mind if she
got home late; it would be cold meat and a salad and she could help
herself from the huge, old-fashioned larder.  She paused to watch a
blackbird, and when it flew away whistled to it.  The answering whistle
wasn't one that any ornithologist would mistake for a genuine bird
call, and Letitia turned round to see who it was.  Jason, coming
towards her.

He came without haste and nor did he appear eager, just his usual calm
self, and she wondered crossly if he ever allowed any deep emotion to
disturb him.  He certainly wasn't displaying his feelings now, if he
had any.  His: "Hullo, dear girl," was uttered in a voice which, while
friendly, held nothing more.

She stayed quietly, waiting for him to catch up with her and said in
her turn: "Hullo.  Have you come to see Katrina?  She's playing tennis
at Doctor Gibbs, didn't Mother tell you?"

He halted beside her.

"Yes, but time enough to see her presently.  Are you on your way to
visit the gipsies, by any chance?  Your mother said you had gone for a
walk."

They were making their way down the path, close together because it was
so narrow.

"Yes, they're back--did you know?  They discharged themselves and I
wanted to see how they were getting on It was too soon."

He said almost the same as her father had done.

"For us it might have been--they live nearer to Nature than we do."

"Have you come to take Katrina home?"  She had been longing to ask
that, and now it had popped out.

"Yes, your mother has asked me to spend the night here and go back
tomorrow.  I'll give you a lift as far as the hospital, if you like."

"Thank you.  Are you going back to your home?"

"Yes--and staying there for quite some time, I hope.  Katrina has
visits to pay before she goes back to school and my mother will be back
from visiting my sisters."

She stopped to look at him.

"Oh--your mother?  You've never mentioned her..."  She went pink then
because there had never been any reason why he should have done so, but
he didn't appear to notice her discomfiture.

"She lives a few miles away from me," he told her.

"We get on very well.  My father died three years ago--he was a doctor
too."

"I'm sorry.  Your mother must be glad that she has so many of you."

"We like to think so.  As a family we get on very well--just as your
family does."

They had come to the end of the path and there were the caravans once
more, with the horses by the water and the lurcher lying in a patch of
sunlight between the trees.  He got to his feet the moment he saw them,
his ferocious back changing to a pleased whine when he saw who it
was.

His welcome was boisterous, and Letitia, freed at last from his
attentions, made a few ineffective attempts to brush down her slacks
and was deeply vexed when Jason remarked: "Oh, leave it, dear girl,
they surely can't be worth all that attention."  His amused eye swept
over her so that she frowned quite fiercely.

"Only a fool would come down here in anything else but jeans and a
shirt," and she was even more angry when he answered:

"I take it you keep an unending supply handy?"

He had laughed gently as he spoke.  Letitia scowled at him and then had
to change the scowl to a smile because the gipsy woman was coming
towards them.  She was followed by the rest of them, the old man and
the boy and the young man, looking thinner and paler than they would
normally be, but their eyes were bright and they seemed surprisingly
fit.  It didn't seem possible that they could be capable of taking up
their old life so soon after being ill.

"Do you really feel all right?"  she wanted to know of the woman.

"Shouldn't you have stayed a little longer in hospital?"

The woman shrugged.

"But why, missy?  It is not our kind of life, closed up between walls,
and Jerry here, he missed his dog.  We shall do very well.  You'll
drink a cup of tea with us?  We're beholden to you both for your
help--you and the kind gentleman here, and it won't be forgotten."

She made an inviting gesture towards one of the caravans and Letitia,
with a glance at Jason, started to walk towards it.  She didn't quite
fancy tea, but she was too kindhearted to refuse hospitality when it
was offered.  They sat on an old bench outside the caravan, talking to
the men-at least Jason did; Letitia got up after a minute or two and
strolled across the grass with Jerry and the dog to give some sugar
lumps to the horses, and when the tea came, she sat down on the caravan
steps and drank it with the dog pressed close to her, hopeful that
there might be more biscuits in her pocket, and the gipsy woman sat
beside her.

She had, from time to time, stopped to talk to the gipsies when she had
met them, but never for such a length of time as this.  They were no
fools, she quickly discovered, and it amused her to see Jason deep in
conversation about trout fishing and obviously enjoying himself.  It
was when she refused a second cup of tea that the woman offered to tell
her fortune for her.

"Turn the cup three times, dearie," she advised Letitia, 'and hold it
upside down with your left hand.  "

"I don't think..."  began Letitia, and caught Jason's eye; he was still
talking about trout, but he was listening to her too.  She did as she
had been told and the gipsy took the cup from her and fell to studying
it.

"A tall, fair man, dearie," she began, and Letitia saw that the men
were all listening now.

"Trouble and strife, but the life of a princess is waiting for you, for
I see wealth and jewels and great happiness.  Just as it should be for
a kind young lady like you are."

Her dark eyes flickered over Letitia's face.

"You don't believe me, but mark my words, missy, I'm one to tell the
truth and that's what I see in the tea-leaves."  She cast the cup away
from her and turned to Jason.

"And you, kind gentle man, shall I tell you your fortune?"

He answered her gravely: "There is no need, I think," and the woman
nodded back at him.

"You're right, there is no need; I've told it all."  A remark of which
Letitia took little notice; it had been easy enough for the gipsy to
talk about a tall fair man when there was one standing beside her, and
one was always told about the money and jewels and happiness waiting to
brighten one's future.  She didn't believe a word of it, although she
thanked the woman nicely as they prepared to go.

They were half-way up the hill before she said:

"I'm glad they're all right."

Her companion tucked a hand under her elbow and because there wasn't
much room, pulled her closer.

"You're a nice girl," he remarked, 'though I believe I've said that
before.  "

"Yes, you have!"  she sounded quite savage.

"I'm sick and tired of being called nice every one says it!"  She
kicked at some nettles and when a briar tore her slacks she couldn't
have cared less.

"Ah, yes a bit monotonous, dear girl, but actually a compliment.  A
nice girl, from a man's point of view at least, means one who is
pleasant to have around, with a soft voice and gentle ways and no ideas
about contradicting him each time he opens his mouth, a girl who
doesn't expect compliments with every second breath, or imagines that
just because he is a man he's wildly in love with her."

"She sounds like a hopeless prig," said Letitia coldly.  They had come
out on to the main track through the wood once more and had turned
towards the rectory.  Jason took his hand from her arm and flung an arm
round her shoulders instead.

"No, Letitia, never that, and just you remember that next time someone
calls you a nice girl."

Especially the bit about imagining he was in love with her, she
supposed sourly.  Had that been a veiled hint?  she wondered
uneasily.

Surely she hadn't given herself away to him?  She tried to think back
to their previous meetings and became instantly confused; it was a
relief when he continued in an ordinary voice: "Katrina has had a
splendid time here, I can never be sufficiently grateful.  As she is so
much younger than the rest of us I sometimes wonder if she has enough
young company."

"Well, we loved having her and I know Mother and Father will always
welcome her if she likes to come again.  Mother misses us all, I
think.

I don't know what she'll do when Paula leaves home.  "

"It is the same for my mother, but of course there will be
grandchildren enough to keep her fully occupied."

"Your sisters have children?"

"Oh, a mere handful as yet, but I daresay that between us we shall
produce enough progeny to satisfy Mama."

She didn't mean to ask, but: "You too you're going to be married?"

He paused to look down at her, a little smile tugging at the corners of
his mouth.

"But of course, dear girl we all come to it, you know.

Can't you see me in the role of father to a succession of children? 
"

Letitia could, only too clearly; he would be a wonderful father.  She
speculated as to the girl whom he had chosen that Wibecke someone or
other, perhaps; it didn't bear thinking of.

They had left the trees behind them now and as they crossed the rough
grass he began to talk about other things, trivalities which kept them
occupied until they reached the rectory, where he was instantly claimed
by the Rector.  Going to bed that night, Letitia reflected that she had
seen very little of him during the day; certainly he had made no
attempt to seek her out, only he had come looking for that morning, and
had that been so that he might tell her, in a casual way, that he was
going to be married?  It seemed very likely.  She closed her eyes on
the unhappy thought, and hardly slept at all.

CHAPTER SEVEN

they left after lunch the next day, with a decidedly mopish Katrina
sitting in the back, and Letitia, who felt that way herself, took great
pains to make conversation, plodding in an uninspired way through such
mundane topics as the weather, the charms of the countryside at that
time of year, the amount of traffic on the road, and adding a few
observations as to the kind of crossing they might expect, the
prospects of fine weather in Holland and the pleasure of returning
home.  To all of which Katrina answered only briefly and Jason with a
civility which she found so dampening that after a little while she too
fell silent.  It was, she felt, someone else's turn.  It was
disconcerting when Jason, apparently reading her thoughts, said:

"Katrina is silent because she is unhappy at leaving your home, but
presently she will get over it, and I--I am silent because I find it
pleasant to drive with you beside me, knowing that I don't need to
talk; that you won't mind if you aren't the centre of interest."

A speech which Letitia found to be unanswerable; he had made her sound
like a chatty saint who hadn't bothered much about her appearance;

it also had the effect of drying her up completely, so that they sat in
silence for quite some distance.

"Perhaps I put that rather badly," Jason said at length, 'but you see,
I think of you as a friend and don't always bother to choose my words.
" He made it worse by adding: " Are you sulking?  "

"No," she said forcefully, "I am not--I have no reason to sulk, have I,
with compliments pouring down on me at such a fine rate!"  She gave a
small, indignant snort and stared ahead of her, aware that he had cast
a lightning glance at her, but he didn't answer her, only after a
minute or two suggested at his most placid that they might stop for
tea.

"How about Shaftesbury?"  he wanted to know.

"There must be a tea-room there."

"Yes, there is," said Letitia, mollified at the thought of tea.

"It's up by the walks..."

"Which walks?"  asked Katrina.  Apparently the idea of tea had cheered
her up sufficiently for speech.

"Well, the town's on a hill, and there's a walk along the ramparts,
there's a splendid view and sometimes local artists hang their
paintings there, and you can look at them as you walk and buy one if
you want to."

Katrina rested her chin on the back of Letitia's seat, her voice
wheedling.

"Jason, please may we go to these walks if we hurry a little over our
tea, and if I see a picture I like, will you buy it for me, then I will
keep it always for a remembrance."

He agreed amiably to this suggestion, and now that Katrina was feeling
more like her usual happy self, the conversation became quite lively,
so that the time passed too quickly, at least from Letitia's point of
view.

The tea-shop was of the olde-worlde persuasion and dispelled the last
of Katrina's low spirits.  They took their tea in one of its small,
low-ceilinged rooms and then walked to the ramparts close by.  Letitia
hadn't exaggerated.  The view was delightful and far-flung, the flowers
bordering the walk were at their best, and sure enough, hung almost the
whole length of the wall, were the paintings.  Katrina skipped from one
to the other, changing her mind every few seconds until Jason told her
good-naturedly that there would be no time to buy anything at all if
she didn't make up her mind then and there.  Finally she picked on a
small water colour of the town and they went along to the end of the
walk to where a woman was sitting at a table, knitting.  Jason had paid
her and Letitia was turning away when Katrina exclaimed: "But Tishy
must have a painting too--Jason, buy her one."

It didn't sound right, put like that.  Letitia was on the point of
refusing on the grounds of not liking anything when Jason said blandly:
"But of course I've seen the very one, but it's to be a surprise.  I'm
going to get it now, but you're not to open it until you get back to
the hospital."

It would have been churlish to have refused.  She thanked him nicely
and strolled with Katrina to the end of the walk while he retraced his
steps.  He caught up with them as they reached the main street, the
picture under his arm, and Letitia spent the rest of their journey
consumed with curiosity as to what it might be.  Only after they had
reached St.  Athel's and they had wished each other good bye, with
almost tearful affection on Katrina's part and careless friendliness on
her brother's, did Letitia climb the stairs to her room and once there,
before unpacking or putting on the kettle for a cup of tea, open her
package.

The picture was a water colour she had seen it as they had walked along
the line of paintings that after noon a gentle painting of a small
stream under the trees, with gipsies and a caravan beside it, not quite
the same as the other, live gipsies, but sufficiently like to recall
them vividly.  For no reason at all she felt tears prick her eyes so
that she had to sniff violently and blow her nose.  She laid the
picture down carefully on her bed and went to put on the kettle in the
pantry at the end of the corridor.  She met several of her friends on
the way, which meant a pooling of tea, sugar and milk and much
searching in cupboards for food, and when the ever-increasing number of
young ladies had crowded into her room and one, inevitably, remarked on
the picture, Letitia was able to say quite cheerfully that she had had
it as a present, and no one had wanted to know who from; she had just
been home and was presumably a gift from her family.

When everyone had gone, she walked over to the hospital, to the
engineer's room in the basement, begged a nail from him and hammered it
in with the heel of one of her winter boots.  They weren't really
supposed to hang pictures in their rooms, but it was a rule which, over
the years, had lapsed.  It looked exactly right on the wall opposite
her bed and it would be the first thing she saw when she woke each
day.

There was a heavy list in the morning and by the end of the first hour
Letitia felt as though she hadn't been away at all.  The patients were
fetched, anaesthetized, operated upon and handed over to her care with
a speed which was too good to last.  It was almost time for her to go
to dinner when an elderly man, admitted as a casualty with a stab wound
in the chest, collapsed a few minutes after she had received him from
the scrub nurse.  She went to work on him at once, calling to Mrs. 
Mead to warn the theatre, so that Julius came immediately, wasting no
words, but dealing with the crisis with silent speed, while Letitia,
well versed in such urgent work, handed him instruments, turned
cylinder taps on and off when he told her to, erected a second drip and
took the patient's blood pressure, it gave faint results presently and
Julius said quietly: "Good--I think we've got him," and gave her a long
list of instructions which she filed away neatly inside her sensible
head.

It was another hour before the man was fit to be transferred to the
ITU, and by then dinner time had come and gone, and what was more, the
afternoon list was looming.  Letitia retired to the changing room and
gobbled the sandwiches Mrs.  Mead had fetched for her, drank some
scalding coffee and without stopping to do anything to her face or
hair, got into her theatre dress again and bundled on the mob cap, and
even though the afternoon held no surprises, she was very tired by the
time the list was finished, and hungry too.  But it was only five
o'clock, there would be no supper for another two hours and she had
nothing to eat in her room.  She finished tidying the recovery room,
poked her head round Theatre door to wish Sister good night, and went
over to her room.

She would have to go out to eat; there was a cheap little cafe just
down the road where she could get a meal.  She had a bath and changed
into a cotton dress, then counted her money; she hadn't a great deal,
but egg and chips would do nicely and if she had a pot of tea and some
bread and butter she wouldn't need to go to supper.  She did her face
and hair in a hurry and went quickly down the stairs and through the
hospital to the front entrance.  The Head Porter, Nathaniel, was just
taking over door duty and saluted her in the fatherly fashion he used
towards the younger nurses.

"Got a date.  Staff?"  he wanted to know.

"Who--me?  Heavens, no.  I missed my dinner and I can't wait for
supper, Nathaniel.  I'm going down to the Cosy Cafe for a meal."

She grinned at him and waved and went on her way, out into the busy
street, packed with people going home from work, and grey and grimy
despite the sunshine.  The cafe wasn't very full, and Fred, who owned
it, greeted her with a friendly nod; over the years the nurses at St.
Athel's had patronized him, and he knew most of them by sight.  He came
over to her table at once, wiped its plastic top and moved the pepper
and salt an inch or two.

"What'll it be, luv?"  he wanted to know.

"Egg and chips, please, Fred, and some bread and butter and a pot of
tea.  I missed my dinner."

"And that's a damned shame, ducks--won't keep yer a mo'."

It was stuffy in the little place, its air laden with the smells of
warm vinegar and fried food and washing up, but it was nice to sit down
and anticipate her supper.  When the tea came Letitia poured herself a
cup and then began on the egg and chips, eating slowly to make them
last, wondering if she would be extravagant and have another lot.  She
decided against it; she had to have new duty shoes before the end of
the month, and it was Margo's birthday in a week's time, and she would
need money for those.  She sighed and nibbled a chip, telling herself
that if she ate too much she might get fat; she became so engrossed in
this possibility that she failed to hear the doorbell pinging as it was
opened.  Only when Jason sat down in the chair opposite hers did she
look up to stare at him, her mouth, luckily empty of chips, half open.
After a long moment she achieved a "Well..."  and smiled a little
uncertainly because he was smiling his nice gentle smile even though he
hadn't spoken.  When he did it was to ask: "Is that your tea or an
early supper?"

"Well, I missed dinner we got held up, and the canteen doesn't open
until seven o'clock."

He leaned forward to study her plate.

"Egg?"  he raised his eyebrows, 'and chips?  I'll join you if I may,
dear girl.  "

He didn't wait for her to answer but lifted a hand to Fred, who
advanced to their table.

"Friend of yours, ducks?"

he wanted to know.

Letitia smiled at him.

"Oh, yes, Fred.  A doctor who works at St.  Athel's from time to
time."

Fred treated his new customer to a narrow scrutiny which the doctor
bore with good-natured fortitude, before saying: "OK, what'll it be,
doc?"

"Egger--eggs and chips, I think, and tea."  He glanced over to
Letitia's side of the table.

"That is tea?"  His glance lingered on her empty plate.

"I can't eat alone.  Letitia, could you manage another plateful and
keep me company?"

"Yes, I could, thank you."  She answered promptly and with no beating
around the bush.

"And fresh tea for us both, perhaps?"  He sat back, quite at his ease,
while Fred took away the used plates and probably as a concession to
his customer's calling, wiped the table down with extra care.  When he
had gone, Letitia said: "I thought you'd gone back to Holland--you said
you were going last night."

He looked at her with lazy blue eyes.

"So I did, but when we got to Dalmers Place, Georgina insisted on us
staying the night, and I can't get a reservation until tomorrow."

"Oh.  How did you know I was here?"

"Nathaniel told me."  He smiled again and looked around him.  The
little place was filling rapidly with bus drivers and their mates,
shabby down-at-heel men with the evening paper tucked under an arm, and
the last of the shoppers stopping briefly for a cup of tea before going
home to suburbia.

"You should have let Karel know you were free and asked him to take you
out to dinner," he observed mildly.

The?  " she exclaimed.

"Heavens, no--supposing he had arranged to do something else with his
evening."  She wasn't going to mention the blonde, after all, Karel had
confided in her.

The tea came and she poured them each a cup and by the time she had
done that, the eggs and chips had arrived, and since Jason began on his
with every sign of enjoyment, she felt no need to conceal the fact that
she was still hungry.  She ate up her second helping with as much
appetite as the first, polished off her share of the bread and butter
and refilled their cups.

"Fred cooks very well," she observed, not because she expected her
companion to be interested in Fred's prowess in the kitchen, but
because it was something to say.  The doctor agreed with her readily,
admirably concealing the fact that he had never in his life before been
into a place like the Cosy Cafe, and that egg and chips, while a
wholesome and sustaining dish, had little appeal for him, especially at
six o'clock in the evening.  He had, in fact, been looking forward to a
quite different meal in a quite different place,

with a bottle of wine and Letitia in her green dress sitting opposite
him.  As it was, he stirred his strong tea and smiled across the table
at her, putting her completely at ease and allowing her to forget that
the dress she was wearing was last year's and her appearance, while
neat, was hardly breathtaking.

She offered him the sugar and asked: "Did you want to see me about
something?"  and his answer was ready enough even if vague.

"Well, I needed to see someone and it seemed a good idea as I had this
unexpected day.  I shan't be coming over again for some time."

Letitia digested this with a sinking heart, her eyes on her plate.  So
many times she had thought:

"This is the last time," and now it really was.  Even if Paula went to
stay with Katrina, and she thought it very likely, there was little
hope of her being included in the invitation.

"Mind if I smoke?"  Jason's voice cut across her thoughts and when she
said no, she didn't mind a bit, he lit his pipe and sat back, puffing
gently at it while she finished her tea, then signalled to Fred,
remarking: "You're tired, aren't you, dear girl?  I've got the car
here, I'm going to take you for a gentle run--just for an hour or
so--you can go to sleep if you want to."

She choked back the yawn which threatened and said brightly: "That's
awfully nice of you to suggest it, but it's such a waste of your
evening."

"No, I like a quiet run now and then."  He added carelessly: "I
intended going anyway, if you like to come along...?"

Put like that it was apparent that he wasn't just making a polite
suggestion.

"Well, if you're really going?"  she said a little inanely, and got to
her feet, praised her supper to Fred and wandered to the door,
conscious that she felt nicely full and more than a little sleepy.

They walked back to the hospital, talking trivialities, and when he
helped her into the BMW, Letitia allowed herself to sink back into its
comfort as he turned the car into the evening traffic and presently,
down to the river, to go at a leisurely pace along the Embankment to
Chelsea and over Putney Bridge, and when she asked him where they were
going, his answer was: "Oh, follow our noses, don't you think, dear
girl?"  which naturally enough led them to Hampton and a pleasant side
road alongside the river, but presently Jason left it and found his way
to Cookham, and all the time he talked, a quiet flow of words which
needed only the minimum of answers, indeed, thinking about it
afterwards, she was quite unable to remember what he had talked about,
only that it had been soothing and undemanding, and when he stopped
outside a charming inn on the river bank and suggested that they had
coffee, she agreed happily.  After all, she wouldn't be seeing him
again; she might as well make the most of the evening.  It was still
warm and not late and they went through the inn and out on to the lawn
beyond, where they had their coffee by the peace and quiet of the
water.

"This isn't at all like Fred's," observed Letitia.  It struck her then
that the doctor wasn't really an egg and chips man; perhaps he was
still hungry, for he was very large.

"Did you have enough to eat?"  she asked a little anxiously.

A muscle twitched faintly at the corner of the doctor's mouth.

"Indeed I did--I found it a very decent little cafe, too.  I liked the
way Fred made sure that I really was a friend and not just being a
nuisance."

"Oh, he's always been like that; we're allowed to go there in uniform,
you know, and he's proud of that and it makes him feel responsible."

Jason nodded.

"What happens to you when theatre closes down?"

"I'll be lent out to the wards, I expect--night duty, too.  I shan't
like that--you see, it will only be for a few weeks, so I shall have to
stay in my own room, not move over to the night nurses' quarters, and
that means I shan't sleep a wink.  People try to be quiet, but someone
always drops something or forgets and puts a radio on loud, and there
you are, awake for the rest of the day."

"No holidays left?"

"Yes, three weeks, but everyone wants holidays now and I've just had a
week and they're short on the wards.  At least, that's what the Number
Seven told me.  If I had measles or something they'd manage very well
without me."

He laughed.

"So they would.  Shall we go?  You're on early in the morning, I
expect?"

They went back a different way, through quiet stretches of road, their
surroundings dim in the evening light.  It was almost dark by the time
they reached the hospital and the streets were quiet, too early for
returning theatregoers, too late for anyone with a home to go to after
their day's work.  Jason drew up outside the main entrance of the
hospital and got out to open her door.

"Did you enjoy your nap?"  he asked on a laugh.

Letitia had tried so hard to stay awake; not to miss a moment of his
company.  She said, her voice stiff with annoyance at herself: "I'm so
very sorry, I tried to stay awake..."  She stopped, aware that she
hadn't put it very well, and he laughed again.

"Would you have gone to sleep if Karel had been driving?"  he asked.

"No, for he would never have given me the chance--you should have given
me a poke."

She wondered why he sighed as he put his arms around her.

"This instead," he told her, and kissed her.

She was surprised, for she hadn't expected that.  She stared up at him,
her emotions churning around inside her so that she really had no sense
at all.  Then she stretched on tiptoe and kissed him back, and then,
when he did nothing about it, said in a hopeless voice: "Oh, Jason,
goodbye," and fled through the door and across the entrance hall.

She reached her room without meeting anyone and began to undress,
appalled at her behaviour, appalled too at the strength of her feelings
when he had kissed her, but then no one had ever kissed her like that
before; he had wiped out Mike's milk-and-water efforts for good and
all.  And it hadn't been fair, it had made her forget her good sense
and she had made a fool of herself in consequence--and what a good
thing, she told herself savagely, that she would never see him again.

She was brushing her hair with terrible ferocity when Angela put her
head round the door with the offer of a cup of tea.

"My goodness, Tishy," she declared, 'you look as though you've been to
your own funeral!  " and she wasn't far wrong, decided Letitia
gloomily.

Theatre worked flat out for the next week; as many cases as possible
had to be dealt with before it was closed, otherwise when it re-opened
the waiting list would be unmanageable.  It meant that everyone on the
theatre staff had to work longer hours and extra hard, but Letitia
didn't mind; it suited her mood to be so busy that she had almost no
time to herself and no time, either, to think.  She made the extra work
an excuse for going to bed early and joining, only for the briefest
time, the sessions of tea-drinking which were usual in the home, and on
duty she did her work just as well as she usually did, only with a
quietness which discouraged the others from the customary chatting
whenever there was a moment.

It was Julius who cornered her at last, strolling into the recovery
room when the list was over for the day.

"Busy afternoon," he observed laconically.

"Thank heaven there's another holiday just around the corner which
reminds me; I have something to ask you.  Georgina is annoyed with me
for forgetting..  if I can arrange it, would you consider coming to
Holland with us?  Nanny's going to her home while we're away and
Georgina thought at first that she could manage Polly and Ivo at
Bergenstijn, but on second thoughts she isn't so sure.  She wants
someone there so that if we wanted to go away for a few hours, or even
a day, the whole household won't be disrupted, and it has to be someone
she knows and trusts.  She thought of you.  We must emphasise that you
aren't expected to take Nanny's place, only be willing to take over if
and when Georgina is away or caught up in the small amount of
entertaining we do.  Don't decide at once, think about it for a day or
two."  He had gone before she had time to frame a single word.

She went along to see Margo after supper, perching on her sister's bed
and drinking a mug of tea while she repeated the doctor's astonishing
request.

"And he didn't stop for an answer," she ended.

"He said think about it."

Margo looked at her thoughtfully.

"Tishy, I think I should go--after all, you'll only be put on night
duty until theatre opens again, and you know how you hate that.  Julius
can arrange it, I'm sure, and Georgina likes you, so you can be sure
you won't be overworked.  I've been to Bergenstijn, remember, it's well
staffed and beautifully run."

"Is it anywhere near...1 mean, is it in the country?"  Letitia longed
to ask if Jason lived anywhere nearby.  If he did, she assured herself
silently, she wouldn't go, but Margo's answer made that unnecessary.

"Oh, it's on its own, nothing else close by, only a village, and that's
small.  There's a swimming pool and a tennis court and a gorgeous
garden with a pond--you'll love it.  You've been looking a bit peaked,
Tishy--that week at home wasn't enough, a change of scene might do you
good.  I daresay Karel will be there for part of the time, as well as
Cor and Beatrix and Franz I don't know about Phena.  You'll know
everyone which will be nice, but do as you like, love."

"I suppose I might as well."  It would be nice to see the country where
Jason lived, even though his home was miles away from Bergenstijn, but
at least it would be better than trying to imagine it, and Polly and
baby Ivo would fill her days nicely; when she got back to St.  Athel's
the theatre would be going harder than ever.  She would have no time to
brood, and a good thing too.

"I'll go," she said, then drank the rest of her tea and went back to
her own room.

"I hope I'm doing the right thing."

A sentiment echoed by Julius, miles away at Dalmers Place, sitting
opposite Georgina in their sitting room.

"If I weren't your devoted slave, my darling," he pointed out, "I
should have flatly refused to have anything to do with it."

Georgina looked suitably meek.

"Well, dear Julius, I hadn't meant to tell you yet, but I did mention
to Jason that we were thinking of asking Tishy to come to Holland with
us, and do you know what he said?"  She beamed at her husband.

"He said: " George, you're an angel, I've been racking my brains how to
get the girl over to Holland.  "

Don't you think that was nice?  "

"I don't know about nice, my love.  I think that whatever you did or do
it will make no difference in the long run.  If Jason is serious about
Tishy, then nothing will alter his purpose in marrying her."

"Now isn't that a comforting thought?"  murmured Georgina.

Letitia didn't see Julius to speak to until just before the afternoon
list on the following day, when he came into the recovery room.

"I've a letter for you from Georgina.  I fancy she doesn't trust my
powers of persuasion.  I'll leave it in the duty room, shall I?"

Letitia laid the last of the airways neatly beside its fellows.

"Thank you, though I've made up my mind already.  I'd like to come and
help you with the babies, if you really think I can be of some use."

"I'm sure of it, Tishy, and thank you.  Georgina will be delighted.

I'll let you know in a day or two what the arrangements will be.  "

She nodded.

"What about Miss Phelps?"  The Principal Nursing Officer and a bit of a
dragon in a nice way.

"Leave her to me.  As for clothes and so on, Georgina will telephone
you."  A remark which set up a pleasant enough train of thought in
Letitia's mind.  Life would be quiet at Bergenstijn, but she would have
to decide what to take of her rather meagre wardrobe; it kept her
nicely occupied.

Georgina telephoned the next evening, just as Letitia was getting into
the bath indeed, she had actually got one foot in the water when there
was a terrific thump on the door and a voice shrieked at her to go down
to the telephone.  She didn't wait to dry the foot but flung her
dressing gown about her person and pattered down the stairs, leaving
damp marks as she went.  It was only as she picked up the receiver and
heard Georgina's voice that she realized that she had been certain it
would be Jason.  Disappointment closed her throat as she said "Hullo',
but Georgina didn't seem to notice anything wrong; she plunged at once
into plans: they were to travel in three days' time on the Harwich
night ferry and would Tishy mind having Polly in her cabin?  And what
about clothes?  Three weeks, she cautioned, it all depended on how long
they would take over the theatre, but a fortnight at least.

"So don't bring too much," she went on, 'just cotton dresses and slacks
and a pretty dress for the evening.  That lovely green thing you had on
when you were here everyone said how sweet it was oh, and a mac. 
Julius said it was all right about your passport, but I thought I'd
mention it.  "

"I already had a passport," Letitia assured her, and added diffidently:
"You really think I'll be useful if I come?"

"Yes, Tishy, I do Polly likes you, so she won't mind not having Nanny
and I won't mind leaving both of them with you."

"Well, I'll do my best I'm looking forward to it.  I didn't expect
another holiday quite as soon as this."

Georgina laughed.

"You wait until you've had Polly for a few hours before you say that,
Tishy!  Now, everything's clear, isn't it?  Julius will come and fetch
you, we can have dinner and then drive to Harwich,

OK?

"

"OK."

It was surprising how easily everything went;

Miss Phelps didn't seem to mind in the least that Letitia wouldn't be
available for night duty; she spoke rather loftily about helping those
who needed help in an emergency especially when the person concerned
was one of the hospital consult ants, and Letitia wondered what on
earth Julius could have said to her.  And her parents, when she
telephoned, sounded very calm about it all;

it was her mother who wanted to know if she would be seeing anything of
Jason, to which she could only reply that no, she imagined not.  It was
funny, when she considered the matter, that she had no idea where he
lived.  He had never mentioned it and neither had Katrina.  She
promised to send a card when she arrived and a letter each week, and
her father gave her a message to pass on to Jason about some porcelain,
despite Letitia's certainty that she wouldn't be seeing him.

It was a decidedly pleasant sensation to be wafted away from St.
Athel's in Julius's Rolls;

she was tired, for she had worked until four o'clock that afternoon,
but Julius, talking pleasantly about nothing in particular, revived her
flagging spirits and they soared still further at Georgina's warm
welcome when they arrived.  They ate their dinner without loss of time
and got into the car once more, with Polly, in her nightie and dressing
gown and fast asleep, on Letitia's lap and Ivo in his Moses basket,
sleeping too.  At Harwich there was no delay.  Julius drove on board
and then with Polly in his arms, the two girls behind with the Moses
basket and a porter with the luggage, led his small party to their
cabins.

And very nice too, decided Letitia, looking round her.  Small it might
be, but it had everything she could need, even a shower, and the little
brass beds looked very inviting.  She tucked Polly into hers, refused
the offer of a drink, wished her friends good night, and got ready for
bed.  She had never been out of England before and it was all rather
exciting; if she had been on her own she would have gone on deck and
had a look round.  Instead she contented herself with several peeps
from the small window before getting into bed and turning out the
light.

It seemed no time at all before the steward was calling her with tea
and toast, and Polly, waking up too, demanded to come into her bed and
share it with her.  They were making short work of it between them when
Georgina came in, sat down on the end of the bed and picked up a finger
of toast to nibble.

"It's only six o'clock," she stated as Polly climbed into her lap.

"Julius has arranged to leave the ship last so we can have breakfast
before we go.  Could you be ready in half an hour, do you think?  I've
fed Ivo, he's asleep again, bless him.  Did you sleep well?"

"Like a top."  Letitia drank the rest of her tea.

"I'll start on Polly now, shall I?"

Breakfast was a cheerful meal, with Polly perched beside her father and
Ivo still asleep in his basket.  The boat had been full and took some
time to empty itself while they ate their way though bacon and eggs and
toast and marmalade.  By the time they had finished, almost everyone
had gone; they went down to the car then and drove off the ship and
through the Customs, on to the road leading away from the Hock.
Holland, thought Letitia excitedly.  She stared out of the window and
felt a thrill, even though the scenery was prosaic enough; and yet the
houses that bordered the road were different, neat and square, the
windows shrouded in blindingly white curtains.

Presently they joined the motorway to Rotterdam and there were no more
houses, only flat green fields, very pleasant in the early morning.

Rotterdam, when they reached it, she didn't much care for; it was large
and bustling and in the distance were the ugly outlines of the oil
refineries.  It was a relief to leave the crowded streets behind, and
tear on towards Utrecht.  But before they reached that city, Julius
turned off the motorway into a quiet country road, winding through
water meadows and small woods, with here and there a house or two.  It
was charming, and Letitia said so.

"I'm glad," said Julius over his shoulder.

"We live half a mile further on, down a lane."

Georgina turned to look at Letitia.

"Jason has a house a mile from us," she offered in her soft voice.

"He works mostly in Utrecht, you know, that's where his consulting
rooms are.  I expect we'll see something of him."

She turned away again and Letitia was glad she had.  She wasn't sure
what expression her face wore, but inside her there had been a kind of
explosion, happiness and surprise and a kind of panic at the idea of
seeing Jason once more.  She sat very still, taking the deep breaths
she had so often urged her patients to take when they were agitated--it
made no difference at all, she felt as though she were about to
explode, perhaps if she were to shut her eyes.  but when she did, there
was Jason beneath the lids, so she opened them again, just in time to
see the iron gates which guarded Bergenstijn from the outside world.

CHAPTER EIGHT

the house stood at the end of a straight drive, square and solid, its
large windows aligned precisely about its massive front door.  Letitia,
ushered inside amidst a little chorus of welcome, looked around her
with curiosity and then remembered to mind her manners in time to shake
hands with the elderly man who had opened the door to them.

"Hans," Julius enlightened her, 'our friend and steward--and he speaks
English.  "

Letitia smiled widely and murmured suitably, then with Polly toddling
beside her, went with Georgina into what was referred to as the little
room, although it seemed remarkably large to her, but then as far as
she could see, the house was large--Dalmers Place was large too, but in
quite a different way, with a great deal of panelling and any number of
small rooms, odd stairs and narrow passages.  Here, she guessed, there
would be plenty of space, and she was right, for presently, with Polly
safely in Julius's keeping and Ivo sleeping in his basket, Georgina
took her round the house, ending with the nurseries, two rooms at the
end of the wide back landing on the first floor.  Her own room was
between them, with a bathroom of its own and every comfort which she
had ever dreamed of.  Being nanny in the Effert household must be
rather super; Letitia was quite astonished when Georgina apologized for
putting her in Nanny's bedroom.

"But it's beautiful!"  she exclaimed.

"I've never seen such a pretty room, and it's got everything anyone
could possibly want--besides, I shall be close to Polly and Ivo.  I
like it."

"Oh, good.  Let's go down and have coffee, shall we?  Then we can take
the children in the garden until lunchtime.  Polly sleeps in the
afternoon and Ivo wakes up to be fed."

Letitia went to take another look at the nursery.

"Then may I sit up here and write some letters after lunch--I can keep
an eye on them at the same time."

"You don't mind?  Everyone will be coming before dinner--Karel will
bring the children with him--we haven't heard from Phena yet, perhaps
she won't be coming just yet."  They started down the staircase.

"We'll work out some sort of timetable over coffee, shall we?"

It seemed to Letitia that she was being given too much free time, and
she said so.

"I shan't know what to do with myself," she protested, not much liking
the idea of having too much time to think, knowing that her thoughts
were bound to be of Jason.

It was Julius who said easily: "Don't worry on that score, Tishy have
you forgotten that my young cousins will be here?  I doubt if you get a
minute to yourself."

They arrived late in the afternoon, laughing and talking and hugging
first Georgina and then Letitia, talking Dutch and English as the mood
took them, rushing to the kitchen to see Hans and Lenie, the
housekeeper, tossing Polly into the air and going to admire baby Ivo.

Even the dogs, Flip and little Schippershond and Andersen, the Great
Dane, came in for their share of the excitement the old house was alive
with sound.  Letitia, undressing and bathing Polly while Georgina saw
to Ivo, was interrupted by the steady stream of visitors to the nursery
it was obvious that Julius's young relations loved Georgina dearly,
while he could do no wrong in their eyes.  A happy family; the sight of
them together was heartwarming, although it made her feel lonely too.

They went to bed early, for they had all had a long journey of one sort
or the other; it wasn't until Letitia was curled up in bed, the door
open so that she would hear the slightest sound from the children in
the next room, that she allowed herself to think about Jason, so close
and yet so very far away.  She was bound to meet him.  She was still
trying to decide how she would behave towards him when she fell
asleep.

She still hadn't decided by the time she was getting Polly ready for
bed the following day-it had been a busy one, but pleasant, for
everyone had given a hand with the children so that Letitia had found
ample time to talk to Karel, ask Beatrix and Cor about school and
listen to the more serious Franz outlining his hopes of being a great
surgeon later on.  She had found time for a swim in the pool at the end
of the garden, and taken Polly to admire the water lilies in the
lake.

A lovely day, she decided as she obligingly turned herself into a horse
so that Polly might ride her across the nursery floor.  Half-way across
it, they rolled over together, giggling and squirming, while Polly
tugged the pins out of Letitia's hair the better to use it as reins.

"Ouch!"  said Letitia, and rolled over to escape the small hands,
narrowly missing a pair of large feet, expensively shod.  Jason.  She
lifted a startled face to meet his amused eyes and felt Polly plucked
from her shoulders, then with the moppet tucked under one arm, he swung
her to her feet too, rather as though she had been a rag doll.

She was breathless, and not only because she had been romping with
Polly.

"Bedtime games," she managed.

"I'm a horse."

He set Polly on a broad shoulder.

"You look like a girl to me.  I asked where you were and was told that
you were putting this moppet to bed I imagined you going about your
duties with no thought of horse riding, and what do I find?  You, dear
girl, looking every bit as old as Polly."

"Well, really!"  She was struggling with her hair and trying to look
dignified.  She hadn't imagined meeting him again like this; vague
ideas of seeing him across a dinner table, with her in the green dress,
looking serene, or failing that, coming gracefully, of course down the
staircase with Jason looking up at her from the hall below.  She
frowned; things never turned out as she wished them to.

"Little children like a bedtime romp," she pointed out coldly.

"Polly is going to have her supper now, and then I shall put her to
bed."

"No, Letitia, I shall give the brat her supper while you go and tidy
yourself.  Georgina will come and tuck her up as she always does, and
the entire family will watch over both your charges while you, I hope,
spend the evening with me."

"Why?"

He chuckled.

"Shall we say that Georgina is concerned because you have had the
children for most of the day and she thinks you should have a little
time in which to enjoy yourself.  You do enjoy yourself with me, dear
girl?"  His voice was blandly inquiring.

"Yes, thank you.  But I came here to help with the babies..."

"Listen, Letitia, you're hardly expected to sit and brood over them
once they're asleep--and anyway, the house is full of people."  He
smiled with such charm that she found herself smiling back.

"That's better.  Fetch the hot mash or whatever revolting mess this
infant eats, and I'll stuff it into her.  I told Georgina we would be
ten minutes, so leap to it, girl."

Letitia, leapt, unheeding of her resolutions about being serene and
cool.

Twenty minutes later, dressed in the green, her hair immaculate, her
face nicely made up, Letitia presented herself once more in the
nursery.  Jason had fed his goddaughter the supper she had fetched, now
he was lolling against the wall watching Julius tuck his small daughter
in for the night.  Georgina was there too, with Ivo over her shoulder,
half asleep and hi cupping after his feed.  A domestic scene, and it
had apparently struck Jason in the same light, for he greeted her
with:

"Ah, here you are.  I've done my stint, I'm merely filling in time
watching the experts."

"And very good practice it is for you too," said Georgina firmly.

"Now away with you both!"  She smiled at them in a motherly fashion and
Julius said something in Dutch to Jason which made him laugh as he
swept Letitia out of the door and down the stairs.

In the hall she hesitated.

"Where are we going?"  she asked suspiciously.

"Do I look all right?  It isn't anywhere grand?"

He turned her round slowly, his head on one side.

"You look charming, and where we're going isn't grand at all, at least
I don't consider it so," They called good night to the others as they
went through the hall and out into the warm evening.  There was an Iso
Leie coupe parked on the sweep and Letitia paused so that she might
have a good look.

"What a car!"  she exclaimed.

"I'll feel like a million in it is it yours?"

"Yes."  He stood half smiling, saying nothing more, and after a minute
she said: "Well, I like the BMW too."  And when he still didn't speak
she got in when he invited her and settled herself in its comfort,
although this was a waste of time as it turned out, for it was barely
five minutes before he turned the car between two stone pillars, the
gates between them wide open, and raced up the straight tree-lined
drive.  There was a wall at its end with a wide open archway in its
centre.  Without slackening speed, Jason drove through and pulled up
with smooth exactness before a nail-studded door set in the side of
what appeared to her to be a miniature castle.  It was of red brick,

with curved walls and a number of turrets, with a steep roof rising to
gables at either end, and although the sweep before the door was large,
Letitia glimpsed a high wall and water to one side of it.

"Whatever is this?"  she wanted to know as Jason got out, opened her
door and held out a hand.

"Niehof--my home."  He had tucked her hand under his arm and was
walking her towards the door.

"Your home--it can't be!"  She knew that sounded foolish as she spoke,
and added even more foolishly: "It's a castle."

"Well, it began as a castle--I hope we've managed to give it a few mod
cons since then."  He opened the door and propelled her, very gently,
inside.

The hall was a little dim, but pleasantly so, with the black and white
tiled floor which she had expected in such an old building.  The walls
were panelled in some dark wood, with brass sconces set between a great
many paintings.  There was a magnificent medallion cupboard against one
wall and facing it, a painted chest, richly decorated.

Letitia didn't know much about furniture, but her discerning eye could
see that they were very old, beautifully cared for and probably very
valuable.  She would have lingered to study the strap work on the
ceiling and admire the gilt-bronze chandelier hanging from it, but she
was urged towards a double door beyond the cupboard.

"Come and meet my mother," Jason invited.  She tugged at the large hand
holding her so firmly so that he stopped to look down at her.

"Now what dear girl?"  he inquired blandly.

"You might have said ... I had no idea ... rushing me out like this
without a word!"  Her voice rose peevishly.

"I distinctly remember inviting you to spend the evening with me."

"Yes, I know, but you didn't say where."

"You don't wish to meet my mother?"

"Don't be ridiculous, of course I do."  He bent suddenly and kissed her
on her surprised mouth.

"Dear girl, correct me if I'm wrong, but is there any point in this
conversation?"

He had the door open and was ushering her in through it before she
could frame an answer which would have done justice to the occasion.

The room was light and airy compared with the cool dimness of the hall,
with a circular bay window at one side, and two french windows at one
end.  And here the ceiling was elaborately decorated with fruit and
flowers and cherubs painted in delicate colours, and these same colours
had been repeated in the furnishings the curtains, carpet and chair
covers--they all reflected the ceiling above them.  The furniture was
dark oak, polished with age and endless care, and everything seemed
very large--and that, Letitia discovered, included the lady who had
risen from a chair by the window and was advancing to meet them.  An
elderly lady, not far short of six feet tall and built to match, but so
regal in her walk that her size seemed unimportant.  She was flanked on
either side by two hefty Alsatian dogs, who at Jason's low whistle
trotted across the room to greet him.

"Ah, Mama," exclaimed Jason pleasantly, 'may I introduce Miss Letitia
Marsden to you--I don't need to say more than that, do I, for you
already know a great deal about her.  "

His mother smiled, softening her handsome features into motherliness as
she extended a welcoming hand.

"Letitia," she said in a surprisingly youthful voice, "I have been
looking forward to meeting you, for I have been told endless tales of
you by Katrina.  Come and sit down, my dear, and Jason shall get us all
a drink."

Letitia sat, aware of bitter disappointment because it was Katrina who
had talked about her and not Jason, and her hostess went on: "The child
had such a delightful holiday with your parents.  It was kind of them
to invite her, and she has made a good friend in Paula, who I hope will
visit us in a little while."  The charming voice ceased for a minute,
and eyes as blue as her son's smiled into hers.

"Your mother and I have much in common," she went on kindly, 'for we
both have large families.  " She accepted a glass from the doctor.

"I do not live here, you know, but with so many children to visit I
stay with each of them for a week or two at a time and then go back to
my own home.  I lived here when my husband was alive, of course."

"How could you bear to leave it?"  asked Letitia, and wondered if she
had sounded rude.  Apparently not.

"When the children were quite small, I told Jason's father that if he
were to die first, I wished to have a house of my own so that Jason,
who inherited this place, would feel free to lead his own life, so I
have a very pleasant house a mile or so away far enough, in fact, for
him to feel that he need not study my wishes about each and every small
thing.  It works very well."

She smiled at her son, stretched out in an arm chair facing them both,
and turned back to Letitia.

"And you, my dear, you lead a busy life, I under stand, and you are
also a friend of Georgina?"

Letitia, recovered from her initial surprise and fortified by the
excellent sherry, agreed to both remarks, adding the rider that
Georgina was one of the nicest people she knew.

"Indeed, yes, and such a perfect wife for Julius;

they are ideally suited.  " The talk turned to the children and became
general, with Jason saying very little, and once or twice when Letitia
looked up and caught his eye she found herself forcefully reminded of
his kiss in the hall; she went a little pink, remembering it, and saw
him smile.

They dined in another splendid room, panelled just as the hall was, and
with a similar ceiling, and here the furniture was of a later period;
an oval table of walnut, with Chippendale chairs and a long, gracefully
shaped sideboard.  The meal was delicious and served by an elderly man
who reminded her of Hans and was introduced as Jacobus; as old and
trusted a friend and steward as Hans, that was obvious.

Letitia, sitting between the doctor and his mother, wondered how many
servants there were in the house, and if it was difficult to get them
in such a rural area, and as though her hostess had read her mind, she
offered the information that as well as Jacobus, Jason enjoyed the
services of an excellent cook and two maids besides, as well as a full
time gardener.

"Only because," explained Jason, 'the people who worked for my father
married and either lived in the house or settled close by, and now that
their children are grown, they take it for granted that they should
work here, taking over from their parents--a pleasant arrangement and
an enviable one, I admit.  Julius is in like case;

you see, there isn't a great deal of work locally and few of them care
to make the journey to Utrecht each day.  Certainly they don't want to
live there.  "

They began to talk of other things, and Letitia, full of curiosity
about the enchanting castle she was in, had to bottle up the question
she was longing to ask.  She might have asked them if she hadn't been
uneasily aware that Jason guessed at her curiosity and was amused by
it.  She avoided his eye as much as possible for the rest of dinner,
and afterwards, when they were having their coffee in the drawing room,
she concentrated upon her hostess, answering him readily enough when he
addressed her, but making no attempt to attract his attention.

Letitia had hoped that she might be taken on a tour of the house, but
no one suggested it.  The two rooms she had seen had whetted her
appetite to see the remainder, but she was, after all, only a guest for
an evening, and a not very intimate one at that.  She studied the
ceiling with its enchanting paintings whenever she had the opportunity,
and tried to imagine what the rest of the house was like, and with a
careful eye on the clock, made her excuses at the correct time, dogged
by the memory of guests who had come to dinner with her parents and
stayed for hours afterwards, while she and her mother fumed silently,
thinking of the washing up which would have to be done before they
could go to bed--not that Jason and his mother would need to do that.
All the same, she made her farewells without lingering, thanked her
hostess for a delightful evening, murmured suitably in reply to Mevrouw
Mourik van Nie's hope that they would meet again, and walked to the
door with Jason, who had shown a disappointing calm when she had
suggested that she should leave, and over and above that, had made no
effort to prolong her visit.

There was, of course, no reason why he should, her common sense told
her, but common sense could be tiresome at times and held no comfort;

nor did Jason's manner--detached and pleasant and nothing else.  The
unpleasant little doubt crept into Letitia's mind that perhaps he had
asked her to his home as a kind of gesture; his share of entertaining
her during her stay in Holland, a doubt which wasn't dispelled during
the short journey back to Bergenstijn, for he talked about nothing in
particular and never once hinted that they might meet again while she
was there.  As a consequence, she was unreasonably cross by the time
they reached the house, although common sense again warned her that it
was absurd to imagine, even for a moment, that just because he had
kissed her--and very thoroughly too--and invited her to meet his mother
and dine at his home, he was being anything more than commonly
courteous.

She got out of the car with a falsely bright:

"Oh, here we are already," and flounced into the hall, just in time to
come face to face with Karel, coming from the drawing room.

It suited her mood very well when he greeted her with a warm: "Hi,
darling Tish, what a desert of an evening without you," which was the
kind of nonsense she expected from him and which she quite rightly put
down to youthful exuberance on his part.  Normally she would have told
him not to be so extravagant in his talk, but now she said in a voice
as gay as his own: "Then we'll have to make up for it some time, won't
we?"  She smiled at him with such overpowering pleasure as she spoke
that he looked quite taken aback, for she didn't seem her usual
sisterly self at all, but he liked her and not for the world would he
have hurt her feelings--besides, he knew all about her and the
Registrar, and Georgina had warned him to be kind.

"I'll take you up on that," he declared, and caught her hands and
whirled her round.

"We'll have an evening out."

She declared "Oh, lovely!"  with rather more emphasis than was
necessary, but that was only because Jason was still standing by the
door,

watching them.  It annoyed her very much to see that he was smiling
faintly, as though he were pleased.  She let go of Karel's hand and
went over to him.

"Thank you for my delightful evening, Jason."  She smiled at him,
though it was an effort.

"I loved your home," she told him.

"It was so kind of you to let me see it, and I very much enjoyed
meeting your mother."  She couldn't think of anything else to say after
that; what she had said sounded a bit prosy, and Jason was being no
help at all, standing there smiling as though he were amused at some
joke of his own.  She said a trifle sharply: "Shall I let George or
Julius know you're here?"

His brows rose gently and the smile widened so that she went red and
said with a decided snap: "How very silly of me--of course you have
known Julius all you life, haven't you?  I expect you use each other's
homes as your own."

"That's right."  His voice was silky.

"And we've known each other since we were in our prams, all of
thirty-five years, and that is a long time before you were born,
Letitia.  No, don't worry about me, dear girl, I'll find Julius."

He nodded affably at them both and strolled off across the hall and
down the passage which led to Julius's study.  Letitia waited until she
heard the door shut behind him before speaking.

"I think I'll go to bed," she declared, and stifled a quite convincing
yawn.

"Such a lovely evening, but Polly will be awake early.  Is George in
the drawing room still?"

Karel nodded.

"I say, Tishy remember that blonde I was telling you about?"

She paused on her way.

"Oh, yes, but I daresay you don't."

He laughed, a cheerful bellow which surely penetrated the study door.

"You're right, I don't what a wonderful sister you would have made for
a chap, Tishy.  There's a girl," he paused and was suddenly serious,
she's quiet and sweet and pretty, but not so's you'd notice a bit like
you, I suppose prettier, of course.  She doesn't care much for me not
yet.  I wondered if you would meet her when you get back to London I
mean, if she sees you and you tell her you know me.  "

Letitia forgot her own heartache and retraced her steps.

"Karel, of course I will.  She sounds a dear and I'll do anything I can
I expect she heard tales about you from some of your more spectacular
friends and it's made her uncertain.  You want her to see your more
serious side isn't that it?  And if a parson's daughter vouches for
you..."

She put her hands on his shoulders and reached up to kiss him in a
sisterly fashion, unaware that Jason had come out of the study and was
standing at the back of the hall, watching them.  She didn't see him
then, only after she had wished Karel good night and started for the
drawing room once more, and as she could think of nothing to say, she
remained silent, as did Jason, only he smiled again.

"Just as though he were glad," she muttered to herself as she entered
the drawing room, and Georgina, looking up from her magazine,
exclaimed:

"Why, Tishy, is anything the matter?  You look..."

"No, nothing at all.  I've had a gorgeous evening.  I had no idea that
Jason had such a grand home--a castle, no less."

Georgina studied her face.

"He's not a man to talk about himself or his possessions," she said
quietly.

"He's nice, though, don't you agree?"

"Yes," said Letitia, and thought what an inadequate answer that was,
and because there was so much she wanted to say and couldn't, she
wandered off to look at the portrait of an overpowering gentleman in a
bag wig, thus missing the look of satisfaction on her companion's
face.

"I think I'll go to bed, if you don't mind," she said presently,
suddenly terrified that Georgina would start to talk about Jason.

"Of course I don't mind, Tishy, and thank you for being so sweet to
Polly and Ivo.  I thought we might all have a day out tomorrow if the
weather's fine; we can take two cars and do some sightseeing.  If I
have Ivo in his basket with us, perhaps you'd have Polly with you in
Karel's car.  We could go down the River Vecht some friends of ours
live along there, but they're away they won't mind a bit if we park in
their grounds and sit by the water for our lunch.

Would you like that?  "

"It sounds lovely you're sure you wouldn't rather I stayed here with
the babies?  I'd be quite happy, you know; the gardens are so
pretty."

Georgina spoke warmly.

"That's sweet of you, Tishy I'll take you up on that in a day or two.
We have to go to Wassenaar to see Julius's aunt and uncle.  They're
sweet but elderly and I think the children might worry them a bit, so
I'll leave them at home with you.  But Great-Uncle Ivo, he's quite
another kettle of fish in his eighties and an absolute darling and
adores Polly.  He's dying to see little Ivo, that's really why he's
coming.  You'll like him, though he's a bit out spoken."

Georgina got up and cast her magazine on the table beside her.

"I

think I'll go and sit with Julius until he's finished his writing he
likes that, and so do I. "

They went out of the room together and parted at the foot of the
staircase.  There was no sign of Jason.

But even with him constantly in her thoughts,

Letitia found it impossible not to enjoy herself the following day.

Karel might be head over heels in love with this girl of his, but he
was still an amusing companion.  She sat behind him in the Porsche,
rather cooped up, with Polly on her lap and Beatrix beside her while
Franz sat in front.  Cor had gone in the Rolls with the others after a
fierce argument as to who should go with whom, quickly decided by
Julius stating firmly that everyone would change places on the way
back.  It was a blindingly hot day and lunch was a protracted meal with
everyone sitting at their ease by the river.  After they had eaten
everything in the picnic hamper, Julius and Georgina stayed with Polly,
who was sleepy anyway, and the slumbering Ivo, while the others
strolled off, and it wasn't long before the younger members of the
party went ahead, leaving Karel and Letitia together.

"Now you can tell me all about this girl," she urged him.

"What's her name?"

He was only too ready to comply with her request.

"Mary.  Her father's a solicitor, she works in the Medical Secretary's
office, a sort of filing clerk, I suppose you'd call her.  She wanted
to be a nurse, but she doesn't like to see people when they're ill,
although she's very sorry for them, of course."  He shot Letitia a
glance, defying her to comment upon this, but she wisely remained
silent, merely looking sympathetic, which encouraged him to continue at
some length.  He had been talking for quite a time before she man aged
to suggest tactfully that they should return.  He agreed readily enough
and catching her arm in his, began, for the second time, to describe
Mary's perfections.  She was quite relieved when the picnic party came
into view once more; they were all there, waiting for them, and it was
Julius who inquired: "Had a nice walk?"

Letitia answered, aware that Karel was still up in the clouds with his
Mary.

"Very nice, thanks we got talking."  She smiled at Julius, who smiled
back, but although Georgina smiled too, she looked a bit put out.
Getting into the Porsche again, Letitia wondered why.

Everyone left the house after breakfast the next morning to make the
journey to Wassenaar, leaving Letitia with the faithful Hans and the
two babies.  The day passed quickly enough, and if from time to time
she entertained the hope that Jason might call, she tried to ignore it.
She put the little ones to bed at their usual time, had a solitary
dinner with Hans at his most attentive, making sure that she ate the
delicious food he served her, and then went up to her room.  She had no
idea what time the others would be back and if she stayed downstairs
she would feel impelled to keep running up to the nursery to make sure
that the babies were asleep, so she sat in the day nursery, writing a
letter home.  She had almost finished it when the door opened and Jason
walked in.

His "Hullo," was casual.

"No one home yet?"  he asked.

"Have you enjoyed your day playing mother?"

Letitia closed her writing pad.

"Very much.  They're darling children, you know, and no trouble at
all."

He smiled then.

"You sound like Georgina.  You had a good day out yesterday?"

He looked tired, she thought, and longed to ask him why; it was
terrible to love someone so much and be unable to say the things you
really wanted to say.

"Oh, lovely," she answered brightly.

"It was so pretty by the river.  We had a picnic on the bank in
someone's grounds, a friend of Julius--I expect you know him too?"
Jason nodded and she went on: "It was gloriously hot too."

"Too hot to explore the charming walk along the water?"

She answered without thinking.

"Oh, no-- Karel took me, only we were so busy talking I didn't see
nearly as much as I should have done."

He was still smiling, but his face had grown very still; she thought
for a long moment that he would never speak again; when he did it was
in his usual placid voice.

"You can always go again I'm sure Karel will be only too happy to take
you."  He went to the door with an abruptness which surprised her.

"I must go home.

Good night.  "

Letitia stared at the closed door, puzzled, wondering why he had come
and why he had left like that the conversation had been harmless
enough.  She frowned and went back to her letter, mindful of the
promise she had made herself that she would try not to think of him
more than she could absolutely help.

She didn't see him for several days after that.  It was Georgina who
let fall the information that he was entertaining guests of Niehof, and
later Julius told her that they had all been invited to an evening
party there; all except herself, for someone had to keep an eye on
Polly and Ivo and after all, that was why she was there, wasn't it?

Only Julius didn't put it like that.

"It's an opportunity for us all to go out together," he explained.

"Usually that's difficult when Nanny's away, and it would have been out
of the question now, only you are so luckily with us, Tishy.  Jason
thought it a splendid opportunity."

So it was Jason who had suggested that she should stay home!  In that
case, even if she were asked, wild horses wouldn't drag her there.  She
agreed as to the excellence of the arrangement,

her face and voice so wooden that Julius gave her a long, thoughtful
look, frowning a little.

It was that same day that Great-Uncle Ivo arrived, driven in a
motor-car--a Packard-which should have surely been a museum piece.

Georgina whispered that the old gentleman went to great expense to keep
it in running order and absolutely refused to exchange it for anything
more modern.  He was a determined old gentleman as well as being
outspoken, she added, and Letitia could see that she was right.

Waiting on the fringe of the welcoming group she could see that here
was a very old gentleman, bearing a marked resemblance to Julius, with
a great deal of white hair and piercing blue eyes, greeting everyone in
his own good time, and when he at length got to her, he looked her up
and down before offering a hand for her to shake.

"Plain girl, aren't you?"  he observed in a booming voice.

"Quite a taking face, though--a little like Georgina was before Julius
married her--and look at her now, quite a beauty."  He chuckled.

"That's what comes of being happily married.  You should try it, young
woman."

"Chance is a fine thing," retorted Letitia with some asperity, and he
burst out laughing.

"That's right, girl--you've plenty of spirit.  I don't care for
mealy-mouthed women myself.  A dash of spirit lasts you all your life,
and looks don't remember that.  And now I'll see my namesake."

By the end of the day Letitia decided that she liked Great-Uncle Ivo;

his tongue might be sharp and his manner somewhat dictatorial, but he
loved his family and his manners were perfection despite his age.  In
the garden after tea, taking Polly to feed the ducks on the pond before
bed time, with Karel as escort, she ventured to ask about him.

"I can't remember him ever looking other than he does now," Karel told
her, 'and I simply can't imagine this family without him.  I know
Julius is the head of the family, but Great-Uncle Ivo is a kind of
figurehead, if you see what I mean.  I think we would all like him to
go on living for ever, and unlike most people, we none of us need his
money.  There's none of that standing around waiting for him to die, if
you see what I mean.  "

"I suppose you're very rich," Letitia observed idly.

"Yes, we are.  Some ancestor made a pile in the West Indies and it's
been taken care of ever since.  Jason's a wealthy man too, though I
believe the ancestor who started them on the road to riches was a
bloodthirsty type who fought for William the Silent.  Not that Jason's
like that; as kind and generous as they come can't think why he hasn't
married; heaven knows there've been plenty of girls only too willing.
No, he's the sort to marry some mouse of a girl because he's sorry for
her."  He paused and then went on uncomfortably: "I shouldn't have told
you that, I suppose-about Jason being rich."

"It doesn't matter, what difference could it possibly make?  I'm not
likely to meet him again once I'm back in England, and I don't
gossip."

"Lord, no," he agreed warmly.

"I say, you haven't told anyone about Mary, have you?"

"Of course not.  All the same, I think it's a pity you don't tell
Julius and Georgina."  She bent to pick up Polly so that she could
throw the bread they had brought with them to the family of ducks
paddling towards them.

"Well, I can't--not yet.  They'd not take me seriously--they'd think
she was just another girl, and she's not."

Letitia felt a stab of envy for the absent Mary, then had to stifle
hysterical laughter when he went on seriously: "You see, Tishy, you
wouldn't understand--you have to be in love to do that."

She put Polly down.  She was in love, but it hadn't made things very
clear to her, in fact she had never been so muddled in all her life.

She said quietly: "Well, Karel, the thing is--I should imagine--to be
quite sure--both of you, and when you are you can talk to Julius and
he'll understand.  After all, you're old enough to marry and you've
just told me you've enough money to live on--besides, you're a good
surgeon, Jason told me so.  You'll be a success even if you didn't have
a farthing of your own."

"You are such a comforting kind of girl," he assured her gratefully,
and flung an arm round her shoulders as they walked back to the house,
and Jason, standing at the open drawing room window with Georgina and
Julius, saw that.

Georgina made off with Polly when they arrived, and Karel wandered off
after a few words with Jason, and Julius went with him, leaving
Letitia, who fidgeted round the room, trying to think of some excuse
for going too.

"I wanted you to know that I'm sorry that you can't come this evening,"
said Jason presently, 'but I know you understand.  "

Letitia rearranged the cushions on the enormous sofa before replying;

of course she understood; what should Jason Mourik van Me, a rich man
who lived in a castle which took away one's breath with its miniature
grandeur, want with a girl he had once described as quite nice?

"Of course I understand.  Besides, Jason, I think you overlook the fact
that I came here to look after Polly and Ivo--I'm being paid for it,
you know.  I hardly expected to be treated as a guest.  They're all
wonderful to me as it is, but there's no need to think that I mind.  I
don't."

He was lounging against one of the chairs, staring at her.

"You've quite got over the Medical Registrar, haven't you?"  he asked
to surprise her.

All the same she kept her voice steady.

"Yes, quite, thank you."

"Perhaps there's someone else."  It was a statement, not a question, so
that she found it difficult to answer.  When she remained silent, he
said: "I hope so, Letitia."

She began on the cushions once more, for she couldn't stand still
listening to him talking like that, and when he crossed the room
towards her she held one of them in front of her as if to ward him off.
He actually had his hands on her shoulders when she said in an unhappy
little voice: "Oh, Jason, please don't--not again, I couldn't bear
it!"

He dropped his hands at once and she saw him wince.

"I didn't mean..  " she began--it was no good, she would have to tell
him that she loved him and that it wasn't fair to kiss her; heaven knew
what she might have said if he had allowed her to go on, but he didn't.
He said quietly: "My dear girl, you don't have to explain anything,"
and went out of the room.

When everyone had gone and Letitia had pretended to eat her dinner
under Hans's worried eye, she went up to her room and sat by the
window, staring out into the darkening garden.

She had tried during the evening to think what she could say to Jason,
but she had had no success, and now she was tired to death with only
one thought in her head; that she loved him very much, despite the fact
that he had never given her any encouragement to do so.  A nice cry
would have been the thing, but she seemed beyond tears.

CHAPTER NINE

the party had been splendid, everyone told her the next morning.

Letitia listened to their cheerful talk about it, treasuring every
mention of Jason, then suggested that as Georgina had had a late night
she might take the babies into the garden until lunch time, an offer
willingly accepted.  Letitia went to sit by the lake, with baby Ivo in
his pram and Polly busy picking daisies so that they might make a daisy
chain together.  It was quiet there; she would have been quite happy to
have gone back there after lunch, but Georgina insisted that she should
accept Karel's offer to drive her into Utrecht so that she might do any
shopping she wanted, and indeed, she had presents to choose for her
family.  With his help she found something to please everyone before he
took her to tea at the Esplanade Restaurant, a | large cheerful place
in the heart of the city.  It was during tea that she managed to ask
with a casual air where the hospital was.

"Oh, if you mean the one where Jason works-that's the largest, you
know, we'll go that way 195

presently, and you can see for yourself.  It's pretty up to date.  "

He was as good as his word, parking for a few minutes in the hospital
forecourt and pointing out the various departments.  Letitia looked at
them all carefully, imprinting them on her mind, so that later on, when
she was back in England, she would be able to think of Jason working
there.  It was cold comfort but better than nothing.

The days flew by; there was always something to fill them and whenever
possible Letitia was included in the various outings, and when she
stayed behind with Polly and Ivo there was the faithful Hans to look
after her.  She told herself that she was a very lucky girl, living in
such comfort and with so little to do.  She had struck up quite a
friendship with Great-Uncle Ivo, too-it was impossible not to like the
old gentleman, even though at times he was quite outrageous;

besides, he often spoke of Jason.

"Knew him as a boy," he told her one afternoon when they were sitting
in the garden together.

"Young limb, he was--always at the top of a tree or away fishing or out
with the dogs.  He's grown into a decent chap, don't you agree, girl?"
He had stared into her face so that she pinkened, furious at herself
for doing so.

"Um," said her companion thoughtfully, and then: "God bless my soul!"

She was to go back a few days ahead of the others; partly because Karel
intended to leave then and was giving her a lift, and partly because
although the theatre would be opened again the day after she returned,
Julius wouldn't be working until the end of the week.  The last few
days came and she had seen nothing of Jason;

he might just as well have been at the South Pole for all the
difference it made, but there was to be a party on her last evening and
although Georgina hadn't said that he would be there, Letitia hoped
that he would be.  But as it turned out, it was the day before that
when he came.  Letitia was spooning Polly's supper into her small pink
mouth when he walked in, so quietly that she didn't hear him until he
slid into a chair beside her at the nursery table.

"Hullo."  He sounded as though they had seen each other only an hour or
so ago instead of days.

"You're going home tomorrow, Julius tells me."

"Yes."

"With Karel?"

"Yes."

"I've a free afternoon tomorrow, so I wondered if you would like to
come over and see the gardens, they're rather nice just now."

"Thank you, I'd like that," and then, anxious not to seem too eager for
his company: "But I'm not sure about tomorrow, I must ask George."

"I already have and she said go ahead.  She'll be home all day, anyway,
and had intended asking you if you wanted to go anywhere on your
own."

"Well, then yes, I'll come."  It had been weak of her to say that; why
not make some excuse and say goodbye now?  That would have been the
sensible thing to do, only she wasn't sensible any more.  She stuffed
rusks and milk, mashed together into a horrid pap, into Polly's willing
mouth.

"Good girl," she encouraged her, 'there's a banana for afters.  "

"Revolting!"  declared Jason.

"And she actually seems to like it.  I've brought her some
chocolate."

"One small piece," Letitia warned him, 'before I clean her teeth.  "

He was unwrapping it while his goddaughter uttered cries of joy from a
full mouth.

"You'll make a pretty fierce mum," he observed, and added:

"A rather sweet one too."

"I'll have to get married first."

But he didn't answer her, only smiled and presently took a casual
leave.

He called for her after lunch the following afternoon, relaxed and
elegant, for all the world as though he hadn't come straight from a
heavy morning's work at the hospital.  Letitia had spent a good deal of
thought on what to wear, rather in the mood of someone going to the
block and wishing to put on a good show.  She had decided at length on
a blue and white striped cotton dress,

last year's, so neither new nor as fashionable as she would have
wished, but it was cool and pleasing to the eye, and she had tied her
hair back with a matching ribbon and got out her best pair of sandals
to put on her bare feet; she had bought them on a shopping trip with
Georgina; they were blue too, canvas with a rope sole and really quite
the latest thing.

Jason gave her an all-embracing glance, accorded her a cheerful hullo,
then addressed himself to Georgina and Julius, lounging on the terrace,
and standing there beside him, Letitia was conscious of doubt about the
afternoon's outing.  After all, he had no interest in her, not the kind
she wanted, anyway.  There was no need for him to put himself out.  He
had, after all, already done his share of entertaining her.  She began,
quite foolishly, to think of an excuse for not going.

A sore throat?  or a headache?  No good, both he and Julius would at
once examine her perfectly healthy tonsils and know it for an excuse,
and a headache was too old a trick.  And there was no more time to
think of anything else, for he asked:

"Ready?"  in a voice suggesting that she had kept him waiting, and
urged her into the car.  It was the BMW this time and she commented
upon it.

"I quite thought you'd got rid of it," she added.

"Lord no--I like a change, that's all."  He spoke laconically and after
that they said very little on the short journey, but when they reached
the archway again, she uttered an involuntary "Oh, it's absolutely
super!"

He agreed placidly and invited her to get out.

"My mother isn't here," he told her.

"My eldest sister's children have taken the measles, and Mama has gone,
full sail, to render all aid."

She turned to look at him.

"You sound as though--as though you don't like children."

She was conscious of his hand on her shoulder.

"On the contrary," he assured her quietly.

"Come inside, it's far too nice a day to waste it indoors, but there is
one room, I believe you would like to see."

Letitia would have disputed that point; there was nothing she would
have liked better than to stroll from room to room of the lovely old
place and examine its treasures at her leisure, but she could hardly
ask.  She agreed politely and allowed herself to be led down a short
passage at the back of the hall where he opened a panelled door.

"This is the oldest part of the house," he explained.

"It was used as the solarium by the wife of the man who built it.
Mother used it as her sitting room, just as all the ladies of the house
did before her.

It has been empty for a year or two now.  "

It was a small apartment, wainscoted to the plastered ceiling, with
long windows leading into the garden, an open fireplace with its log
basket and irons, and a high-backed brocaded chair drawn up to its
side, flanked by a lady's worktable, the blue of its faded silken bag
matching the curtains.  It was a delightful little room; Letitia ran a
careful finger along the marquetry ornamenting the top of a small
circular table in the centre of it and exclaimed on a little sigh:
"It's quite perfect.  I can just imagine your mother, and all the other
mothers before her, coming here for peace and quiet--she would have
needed that now and again, I expect, with so many of you..."  She was
thinking aloud, forgetful of her companion for the moment.

"There would have been a great deal to do--children to see to and meals
to plan and the house to run, and time to be with her husband--she
would have wanted that too."

She went to look out of the window and said dreamily: "And such a
lovely garden too."

Jason opened one of the french windows, and without saying anything,
gestured for her to pass through.

"There have always been roses here," he told her, 'so that whoever was
in the solarium would be able to see them and smell them too-there's a
charming herb garden, too.  "

They strolled down one path and up another, pausing to admire the lily
pond and the formal Dutch garden with its neatly clipped box hedges,
the flowers set so precisely that they might have been painted on
canvas.  Presently he suggested tea, and they went indoors, Letitia's
head delight fully full of scents and flowers and a glimpse of a vast
kitchen garden which in its way was just as beautiful as the flower
beds.  They used a small side door this time, which opened into a
pleasant room with a wide balcony overlooking a lawn edged with trees,
and here they had tea, with Letitia nervously pouring it from a Queen
Anne silver teapot into Meissen cups so delicate she was afraid they
would crack if she raised her voice.

She had worried about being alone with Jason;

that she might feel awkward or shy, perhaps, but she was neither.  He
entertained her with a flow of talk which steadied her nerves nicely,
so that when he suggested that she might like to go on to the balcony,
she agreed readily.  They stood side by side, leaning on its delicate
wrought iron balustrade while he pointed out the distant summer house,
the tiny stream which fed the pool at the end of the lawn, and Jaap the
gardener, bending over the flower beds.

"He's been here for as long as I can remember," Jason told her, 'he
must be well into his eighties and works a full day still.  It was
suggested a little while ago that he should retire, but he was so upset
that no one has dared mention it since.  "

"I expect he loves his garden.  Does he have any help?"

"Lord, yes, dear girl.  He has a couple of lads whom he bullies
unmercifully, though they take it like lambs."  He turned to look at
her, and she noticed for the hundredth time how vividly blue his eyes
were.

"Letitia, will you marry me?"

She was stunned into silence, goggling at him, her mouth agape, her
eyes wide.

"Marry you?"  she repeated, her voice high.

He nodded.

"That's right," he agreed calmly, 'marry me.  " He smiled a little and
she waited, for surely he would tell her that he loved her, then it
would be easy for her to tell him that she had loved him for weeks. But
he said nothing at all, only looked at her, his eyes half closed
against the sun, still smiling.

Not wanting to, she remembered what Karel had said--that Jason was the
kind of man to marry some mouse of a girl out of pity.  Somehow she
kept her voice level and her face calm.

"It wouldn't do, Jason--I'm not the right person.  You see, I'm not
used to managing servants;

we've only ever had old Mrs.  Barnes at home and she comes twice a week
and does what she wants.  I wouldn't know how to go about things, and
they'd hate it, and after a little while you would too.  And it's such
a large house.  "

"Just a house, dear girl, and my home--and everyone, down to the boy
who does the odd jobs, likes you."  He bent down to fondle the two dogs
sitting so quietly beside him.

"That's an excuse, isn't it, Letitia?  You're not the girl to care one
bit that I have rather a lot of money and everything that goes with
it--you could manage an establishment twice the size of Niehof, and you
know it.

You're making excuses, dear girl.  "

She had looked away because she wanted to cry and he mustn't see.  She
wondered what had decided him to ask her to marry him--probably an
impulse born of his kindness, not love--he had been careful not to
mention that.

"Yes," she said in a small, well-controlled voice, "I suppose I am."

He stood up.

"Well, we'll forget the whole thing, shall we, dear girl?"  And now his
voice was as placid and cheerful as usual so that she had to take a
quick look.  He was watching her with eyes still half shut, so that she
was unable to read their expression.

"We certainly mustn't let it spoil a beautiful friendship, must we?" 
He went on easily: "Tell me, which way is Karel taking you home?"

"We're to go on the Ostend ferry, I believe.  He'll drop me off at St.
Athel's."  Letitia heard her voice, sounding quite natural, answering
him, and it was like listening to someone else speaking while her mind
grappled with the fact that he had asked her to marry him--and she had
refused when it was the dearest wish of her heart.  Jason was speaking
again.

"Ah, yes--quite easily done.  He has only a couple more months to do,
hasn't he?  Has he any idea where he's going next?  He's a good
surgeon, Julius tells me, so presumably he'll specialize, and do
well."

She didn't want to talk about Karel, who didn't matter at all, but
Jason seemed interested, and they had to talk about something, didn't
they?

"Oh, yes--I think he will, and he's very keen to get on."

"And young."  There was edge to Jason's voice which Letitia had never
heard before.  Probably he was irritated at their awkward little
scene;

she made haste to find a topic of conversation.  The garden once
more;

she wore it threadbare, but Jason agreed pleasantly enough to her
remarks, and presently the conversation was back again on safe
ground;

trees and shrubs and flower-beds, until he suggested that they should
go.

"I hate to bring such a pleasant afternoon to an end," he told her
gently, 'but if you are to go to George's party, we should be going.
"

He had become the genial host, thoughtful of his guest, and his
impersonal good manners chilled her to the bone so that any wild ideas
she had been turning over inside her unhappy head were most effectively
damped.  She accepted his suggestion in a colourless voice and sat
silent beside him, composing a little speech to make to him later, when
they would say goodbye.

Only it didn't turn out like that.  True, he went into the house with
her and stayed for a drink, showing none of the signs which a man whose
offer of marriage had just been refused might have been expected to
exhibit.  He was his usual good-humoured self, and when he got up to
Letitia, who had been watching him, forgot every word of what she had
planned to say.  Not that it mattered; how could she have said it in a
room full of people?  How did you tell a man that you loved him to
distraction and then ask him if he loved you with friends and relations
milling round, listening to every word?

Letitia shook hands, and his hand was cool and firm and nothing more,
and she thanked him for a pleasant afternoon and murmured suitably when
he wished her a pleasant trip home.  She watched him go, sickened by
the very idea of going back to St.  Athel's and longing to rush after
him and say so.  But what would be the good of that?  And perhaps it
was fortunate that she hadn't had the chance to say the things she had
wanted to say-she would have regretted it later, for he had never said
that he loved her.  Indeed, now that she came to think about it, he had
changed the conversation so quickly that she would scarcely have had
the opportunity to change her mind if she had wanted to.  Perhaps he
had regretted the words the moment they were out of his mouth and felt
nothing but relief.

She saw the BMW shoot smoothly down the drive, not listening to a word
Great-Uncle Ivo was saying to her, so that she uttered replies at
random, causing that old gentleman to look at her searchingly and
bark:

"He'll be back, girl, he'll be back."  Which remark brought her to her
senses more quickly than anything else could have done.

"No, he won't," she told her companion in an empty voice.  For a
frightful moment she thought that she was going to disgrace herself by
bursting into tears, but she choked them back.

"Do you suppose this glorious weather will last?"  She asked the
ridiculous question in a voice which didn't sound like hers at all.

"No," said Great-Uncle Ivo, "I don't."  He went on fiercely: "You're a
silly chit of a girl--Jason's a man in a thousand."

"Oh, do you think I don't know that?"  she almost wailed at him.

"Please don't let's talk about him!"

His old blue eyes surveyed her unhappy face.

"We were talking about the weather," he said at once.

"We are having a glorious summer, though you probably don't agree with
me, Letitia--and we each have our share of it.  You have yours, my
dear--a slice of summer."

"A small slice of summer," she corrected him, 'and it's finished.  I'm
going back tomorrow.  "

"Ah, yes--with Karel.  Such a dear boy."

"It's kind of him to offer me a lift."  As though he had heard his
name, Karel crossed the room to them and a few minutes later Letitia
was laughing and talking as though she hadn't a care in the world.  It
was difficult, especially when she remembered Jason's nonchalant wave
of the hand as he went, but life had to go on, however awful she felt
about it.  She would have liked time to think, but Karel gave her
none;

he was demanding to know if she could be ready to leave by seven
o'clock the next morning, and when Great-Uncle Ivo strolled away, he
confided:

"I telephoned Mary, and she'll be in London-we'll get a few hours
together.  You don't mind?"

She summoned a smile.

"Of course I don't," and she sighed without knowing it so that he asked
her if she was tired.  She shook her head, unable to tell him that the
day had become endless now that Jason had gone.

It was pouring with rain in the morning;

unexpected and suitable to her mood, but it was impossible to remain
miserable in Karel's company; he was at his gayest and she did her best
to match his mood, while a part of her mind thought of Jason.

It was, in a way, good to be back at work; Letitia flung herself into
the well-known routine, telling herself that now she was away from
Jason she would find it easier to forget him; only she couldn't, she
went around with a sad little face, joining in the lighthearted chatter
of her friends, denying vigorously that anything was wrong when Margo
challenged her in a big-sisterly fashion to tell her what was upsetting
her, and throwing herself wholeheartedly into the mild activities
afforded by the thin purses of herself and her friends.

She went out with Karel too.  On the first occasion she quickly
discovered it was to receive a briefing for the next invitation, when
Mary would be there too.  She listened carefully while Karel regaled
her with dinner at the Snooty Fox.

"You see," he told her seriously, 'you're just the kind of girl to
convince Mary.  "

Letitia spooned ice cream.

"What of?"

"Well, you know..  you're so..  so..."  He paused, and she supplied:
"Yes, I know--respectable," and he nodded.

"You mean that if she meets me and I say I'm a friend of yours she'll
be convinced that you're respectable too and not just fancying her?"

He closed his eyes and looked pained, "fishy, what a vulgar
expression!"  and opened them again to add: "Yes, that's exactly it."

"When's the great day?"

"Could you manage Wednesday evening?  Do you think this place will
do?"

She looked around her.

"Yes, it's marvelous, and anyway, I don't know anything about these
super places.  Only would it be a good idea to take her--us--to the
sort of place where she might meet an uncle or a father or mother--do
you know what I mean?"

He picked up her hand lying idle on the table and kissed it.

"Genius!"

he exclaimed.

"Of course!  The Connaught--Julius takes George there.

What a clever girl you are, Tishy.  "

She grinned at him.

"Oh, I know--only don't go doing silly things like kissing my hand,
will you?  Mary might not like it."

She would have liked a new dress for the occasion, but if she were to
go home for her next days off, she wouldn't be able to afford one.  She
put on the green once more, quite sick and tired of it, and went
downstairs to where the taxi Karel had sent for her was waiting.

As she got into it, she thought how right she had been to refuse his
offer to come and fetch her, deeming it wise for him to concentrate on
his Mary.

The evening began splendidly.  Mary was a nice girl.  She would,
Letitia saw at a glance, be just right for Karel; she had a pleasant
voice, a charming manner and was, moreover, quietly pretty, and as well
as that, Letitia fancied that she had some rather old-fashioned ideas
which Julius and George would approve of.  They got on splendidly
together, and Karel, a little over-anxious to start with, relaxed as
dinner proceeded.  When they had had their coffee Letitia, mindful of
his suggestion, gave it as her opinion that she should go back to
hospital.

"I'm on duty at half past seven tomorrow," she explained, 'and I know
you won't mind.  It's been a lovely evening, and I hope we shall see
more of each other, Mary--it's been so nice to meet an old friend
again--' she waved a hand in Karel's direction.

"You're getting more and more like Julius, Karel, I expect you'll end
up just as well known and liked.  Let me know how the thesis goes,
won't you?"

Mary, who had heard of Julius, looked happy, and Karel beamed.

"I'll take you to a taxi," he offered as Letitia shook hands with Mary
and started for the door.  Half-way there she stopped so suddenly that
Karel, right behind her, had to put out a hand to steady her.  Jason
was sitting at a table just ahead of them.  There was an elderly
gentleman with him, and they had been in deep conversation, but Jason
had looked up and seen her.  She walked on, her legs strangely wobbly,
and nodded stiffly as she drew level with them, she was aware that
Jason had stood up and that Karel had seen him too and expected to
stop, but without looking back she crossed the foyer to get her coat,
opened her purse to get its ticket and turned to hand it to Karel,
struggling to think of some excuse for her strange behaviour.

Only it wasn't Karel, it was Jason.  He didn't say a word but took the
ticket from her nerveless hand, fetched her coat and held it for her.

She wondered why he looked so pleased with himself as she thanked him
in a die-away voice.

"Don't let me keep you," she begged in a wooden voice, and was
affronted when he said cheerfully:

"Unfortunately, you can't--I'm dining with someone who would hardly
understand if I were to leave him between the soup and the fish."

She walked away from him, although it needed all her will power to do
so.

"I can't think where Karel has got to," she said over her shoulder.

He caught up with her in a couple of strides.

"Gone back to his guest, I should imagine."  His voice was bland.

"I offered to see you to your taxi and he seemed only too pleased to
get back to his table."

She hurried to the entrance.

"How rude, how very rude!"  she breathed furiously.

"I was his guest!"

They were on the pavement now and the doorman had gone to the kerb to
get a cab.

"As chaperone, dear girl?  I caught sight of you some time ago and I
saw Karel's face when he was talking to the girl with you."

He grinned down at her.

"One of the best moments of my life," he declared.

The taxi was waiting.  Letitia said icily: "How nice for you.  I'll say
good-bye."  She made to get into the taxi, but he put a large hand on
its door.

"Say what you like, Letitia.  We shall meet again very soon."

"I don't want to see you, ever again."  She heard herself utter this
whopping lie with utter dismay and wished at once to deny it, but she
was in quite a nasty temper by now and no longer thinking very
clearly.

Jason allowed her to enter and closed the door after her, and only when
he had given her address and paid the driver did he say cheerfully:
"All the same, I'll be along, little Tishy."

Letitia raged silently all the way to St.  Athel's, undressed in a
tearing hurry and flung herself into bed, where she lay awake for
hours, very unhappy because she had said all the wrong things, and also
because he might take her at her word and never come near her again.

A needless worry, as it turned out; he was there the very next evening.
Letitia had finished tidying the recovery room and was standing
aimlessly in its centre when he came in, and although she had hoped,
deep down inside her, that he would come, she hadn't expected him quite
as soon as this, and certainly not at that hour when she was barely off
duty.  His hullo was friendly and her answering greeting was nothing
better than a croak.  He looked wonderful, she thought foolishly,
standing there against the door, elegant and cool and remarkably
satisfied with himself, and he shouldn't smile at her like that, it did
something to her inside so that she couldn't think straight.

"I don't give in easily, dear girl," he remarked mildly, 'even though
it may appear so.  "

She found her voice at that.

"Well, there has to be a first time for everything," she told him
shrilly, 'and now please go away, I'm busy.  "

"You're off duty."  He was actually laughing at her.

"And why are you so cross, my darling girl?"

"I'm not, oh, Jason, I'm not!"  She stamped a foot and said loudly,
quite contradicting herself:

"I'm so furious--if only I knew how to gnash my teeth!  I'm a mouse of
a girl and you're sorry for me, just like Karel said, and I will not be
pitied and patronized..."

He interrupted her quite ruthlessly: "What utter rubbish!"  He stared
at her thoughtfully.

"Ah, I

believe we have the crux of the matter--what did Karel say, my adorable
Letitia?  "

It all bubbled out in a breathless rush.

"That you had a robber baron for an ancestor but you weren't like him
and that you could have married a dozen times, only you'd get c-caught
by a mouse of a girl because you were sorry for her."  She paused for
breath and opened her mouth to begin another tirade, only she burst
into tears instead.

Jason's arms were very comforting--a little tight perhaps, but what was
the pain of a few crushed ribs compared with the pleasure of being
within their circle?

"Don't cry, my love," he begged her.

"I have never considered you a mouse--indeed, you have reminded me of a
very small dragon on various occasions.  A mouse would never have coped
with a bunch of spotty gipsies or an inquisitive bull."

Letitia sniffed.  There was something she had to know then and there.

"You asked me to marry you and then you seemed quite pleased because I
said no."

He let her go and put his hands in his pockets.

"Let us have a heart-to-heart talk," he invited, 'and then I will ask
you to marry me again.  "

She took a step towards him.

"Oh..."  She got no further; the door behind Jason had opened and
Sister Hollins came in.  The Theatre Superinten dent was a youthful
forty with a charming manner which concealed an efficient, slightly
domineering nature, which was probably why she hadn't married.  The
younger, more flighty nurses had been heard to say that it wasn't for
lack of trying.  She gave Letitia a brisk smile and said in a voice to
match: "What, Staff, not gone yet?  I'm sure everything is in perfect
order.  Run along now."

Letitia didn't look at Jason.  She said: "Yes, Miss Hollins," in a meek
voice which covered a multitude of feelings, and slid away to change.

As she went she wondered how Jason would get away--he was a splendid
prize for Hollins and she had looked as though she was expecting a nice
cosy chat.  She tore off her mob cap and theatre dress and in hospital
uniform once more, started for the Nurses' Home.  She would bath and
change her clothes and wait for Jason.  She laughed a little;

he was going to ask her to marry him, wasn't he?  Suddenly the world
had become a wonderful place.

Letitia charged into the labyrinth of passages which would get her to
the Home, and had almost reached the main corridor, half-way down which
was the little door leading to a short cut, when she encountered Miss
Page, and Office Sister and a martinet.  Letitia skidded to a halt
within inches of her, murmured an apology and made to slip past, but
Miss Page had no intention of letting her go.

"Staff Nurse," she observed awfully, 'why are you running?  Is there a
fire?  Is there haemorrhage?  And your hair is a disgrace--hanging in
wisps, a most regrettable sight.  I'm sure I don't know what girls are
coming to!  "

Letitia murmured again in a subdued way, almost dancing with
impatience, and forced herself to listen meekly to a stern lecture.

Only when Miss Page paused for breath did she mutter something soothing
and tear off once more, uncaring other superior's admonishing "Staff
Nurse!"  as she turned into the short cut at last.

It was a sharp right-angled corner.  She took it at speed, straight
into Jason's arms.  She felt them tighten round her with a strong sense
of delight even as she said: "However did you get here?  What did you
do with Sister Hollins?"

"Who is she?"  asked Jason, and bent his head to kiss her.

"Jason--not here!  Everyone goes this way-you can't..."

"Challenging me, my darling?"  He kissed her again, in such a manner
that she forgot where she was, and even if she had remembered, it
wouldn't have mattered any more.

"And now we will have our little talk, darling Letitia."

"Not here--Oh, Jason!"  Two porters, wheeling an empty trolley briskly
towards the corridor, went past, their eyes starting from their
heads;

a nurse, wrapped in the arms of a large, elegant gentleman was an
unusual sight.  They looked the other way when they encountered Jason's
bland stare.

"Your room?"  he suggested.

"You must be joking!"

"Then here.  Now where were we, my darling dear?"

Letitia didn't care any more.  She was possessed of a delicious
sensation of not being responsible for her actions and not minding
about it in the least.

"I met Sister Page," she told him, slightly light-headed.

"Do I look very untidy?"

He was a man of monumental patience.

"No, my darling.  Why do you ask?"

"Well, she said I did--she said my hair was a disgrace and I was a
regrettable sight for a staff nurse."

"Your hair is beautiful, so long and thick and straight; you are, in my
opinion, quite the most charming sight in the whole world, and there is
no need for her to fuss about you being a staff nurse any more.  You
will be my wife, fully occupied in running our home and bossing
everyone around, and I daresay a bunch of tiresome brats as well."

She was enchanted.

"They'll be the most wonderful children--only you haven't asked me to
marry you yet; only that afternoon on the balcony, and you didn't say
you loved me, so of course I couldn't say yes, could I?"

He said thoughtfully: "I have tried so hard to decide when it was I
first found that I loved you, dear girl.  Perhaps when I saw you in
that deplorable pair of slacks and old shirt, coming through the wood
to meet me and not so much as a hullo, but a stream of words in which
dogs and horses and gipsies were all muddled together.  But I don't
think I was sure, not then, and when I did know that you were the only
girl in the whole world for me, Karel was there and 1 thought that it
was he, and when you refused me in such a businesslike fashion, I felt
sure it was.  But I had to be quite sure, so I came over to see you,
and there you were, a kind of invisible third at dinner with those
two."  He grinned down at her.

"And your face when you saw me--oh, you contrived to make it severe,
but you couldn't do anything about your eyes, my love."

She stretched up and kissed him.

"Jason, I do love you."

His eyes, very bright, smiled down at her.

"Then I shall propose..."

he paused, 'but not, I think, for a minute or two.  "

The purposeful feet they had both heard rounded the corner.  Sister
Page, primed for wrathful speech, fetched up in front of them,
momentarily taken aback.

"Ah, Sister," said Jason smoothly.

"Good evening, and how delightful that you should be the first one to
hear our good news."

She eyed him cautiously.

"Good evening, doctor.  I want a word with Staff Nurse."

"I see that you don't quite understand," observed Jason, still
smoothly.

"Staff Nurse and I are going to be married."

For a moment Sister Page looked like the cat who had caught a mouse and
had it taken away.  She cast a reproachful look at Jason and a
frustrated one at Letitia and rallied sufficiently to say: "Well, I'm
sure I wish you both happy."  She looked at them rather uncertainly.

"Is it a secret?"  she asked.

Jason answered: "No, please tell anyone you wish."  He smiled at her
and she smiled suddenly at them both before she rustled away, her back
very straight.

The passage was empty.

"And now, dear heart, I am going to ask you to marry me, and if anyone
interrupts me, I shall ignore them, and I hope you will do the same."

Letitia was firmly tucked into his arms again.  She looked at him,
smiling.

"Yes, dear Jason, I'll do whatever you say."