RELUCTANT RELATION

Mary Burchell

Meg was strangely attracted to Leigh, but his presence was a constant
reminder of her unhappy past. Besides, he still cared for the glamorous
Felicity.
 CHAPTER ONE
The little girl was sitting motionlessly by the side of the road.

That was the extraordinary thing about her, Meg thought instantly. The
stillness and the absolute absence of purpose. She could not have been
older than nine—an age when most children are active rather than reposeful
—yet she sat there on the grass verge as though time and place meant
nothing.

Meg glanced over the hedge behind the child, but no house or cottage was
in sight. And on the other side of the road, she knew, was woodland, for she
had just trekked through it. There was something so incongruous about the
little girl that it became impossible to pass her without comment.

As Meg drew level with her, she stopped and said, “Hello. What are you
doing all by yourself?”

“I’m thinking,” was the perfectly composed reply.

“About something interesting?”

“I’m thinking where to go next.”

“Shouldn’t you perhaps go home? You must—” Meg glanced around

again “—be quite a long way from home.”
 “I’m not going home again—ever,” the little girl stated conversationally,
then lapsed into silence.

If Meg was slightly taken aback, she concealed the fact. She had had
enough experience with children to know that they will listen more readily
to a calm person than an agitated one. So she sat down beside the little girl
and asked, “What is your name?”

“Pearl.”

“What a pretty name. What’s your last name?”

“I’m not going to tell you.”

“Very well.” Meg smiled. “My name’s Meg Greenway, and I’m on a
walking holiday. It’s rather fun. But it means carrying quite a lot of things.”

“Is that why you have that big thing on your back? Like a peddler in a
fairy story?”

“I suppose so ... yes.” Meg smiled again. “Except that I don’t have three
wishes in my knapsack; in fairy stories they nearly always do.”

The little girl smiled at that. Then, leaning toward Meg, she said with
endearing roguishness, “Are you sure you don’t have three wishes?”
 “Well ... I don’t know. Perhaps we all have the answer to some of our
wishes in ourselves or in our knapsacks,” Meg said, half to herself. And she
realized it was her awareness of the child’s unusual intelligence that
permitted her to give such a whimsical reply. “If I did have three wishes to
offer you, what would you choose?”

“I think I’d have something to eat,” was the unexpected answer.

“Would you?” Again Meg had to hide the fact that she was taken aback;
for this child did not look at all as though she came from a home where
food was scarce. Her hair was well cared for, her shoes and socks were
good, and her cotton dress was charming and exceedingly well made. “Are
you hungry?”

The little girl nodded.

“Well, I think we can grant that wish,” Meg told her. She slipped off her
knapsack, unbuckled it and took out a sandwich tin, the little girl all the
time watching with an interest that confirmed her hunger.

When Meg offered her sandwiches, she eagerly accepted. But she said
politely, “You have some too.”

So together they shared the sandwiches and fruit, and drank weak tea
from Meg’s thermos flask.
 “Was that your lunch?” inquired the little girl, when the meal was a thing
of the past.

“Yes. But I had more than I needed. How about the second and third
wishes?”

“I wish my father would come back.”

“Oh—” Meg saw she would have to go more carefully “—that might be
more difficult. Has he been away a long time?”

“He went away last week.”

“Then perhaps he’s coming back soon.”

“No. He isn’t ever coming back. Mommy told me so.”

“I see.” Meg felt a sudden tightening of her throat, but she managed not to
sound too emotional as she said, “I’m terribly sorry about that, Pearl. But
you still have Mommy.”

“Yes,” agreed Pearl, with devastating indifference.

“And perhaps a brother or sister?”

Pearl shook her head.

 “Just Mommy,” she said. “And Nanny. And I know what my third wish is.
I’d like Nanny to turn into a frog and hop away somewhere. She looks like
a frog, and she has a croaky voice. Only she can’t hop.” And, in the
unexpected way of children, the little girl went into ecstasies of mirth at the
thought of a transformed Nanny hopping.

Relieved to see her companion react in this much more childlike manner,
Meg laughed, too. “But I expect she’s a nice frog at heart?” she suggested.

“No. She’s a horrid frog. That’s why I’ve run away.”

“But what about your poor mommy? She’ll be terribly worried,” Meg
pointed out.

“Oh, no. She won’t notice.”

“But, darling, of course she’ll notice! You can’t have a little girl and not
notice she’s missing.”

“Mommy can. She’s on location.”

“She’s what?” Meg looked mystified.

“On location. She acts in movies. When they work indoors it’s called the
studio, and when they work outside it’s called on location,” explained
Pearl.
 “Oh, I see. So Nanny looks after you?”

“She doesn’t look after me. She drinks gin,” declared Pearl with
disconcerting knowledge, “and smells horrid. Then she gets red in the face,
then quite pale, and sometimes she falls asleep. She went to sleep this
morning, and that’s when I ran away.”

Meg blinked at this graphic description of what appeared to be a

lamentable situation. But she controlled her inward indignation and asked,
“Was there no one else in the house with you, Pearl?”

“No. Mrs. Parker should have been there, who comes to clean, but she
couldn’t come today because her daughter’s sick. And Cecile—that’s
Mommy’s maid—went on location with her.”

“Then I think I’d better come back to the house with you,” Meg stated
firmly.

“But I’m not going back to the house,” Pearl reminded her, though a
shade less confidently in the face of Meg’s matter-of-fact assurance.

“We have to, you know.” Meg smiled and shook her head. “For one thing,
I think it’s going to rain. And, for another, I couldn’t possibly just go away,
now I know about your trouble. It would spoil my holiday completely if I
thought I’d left a little girl sitting alone by the roadside, wondering what to
do next.”
 “Would it?” Pearl looked both pleased and impressed.

“Of course. Besides, we’ve eaten all my food, and I think it would be nice
of you to ask me back to tea with you.”

“I suppose ... it would.” Pearl got slowly to her feet. “And anyway, I
could always run away another day.”

“You could. But it’s not a very good idea,” Meg said. “It never works. I
tried it once, when I was your age.”

“Did you?” Pearl was evidently staggered by the discovery that the
momentous inspiration was not hers alone. “What happened?”

“Oh, I didn’t get far before it began to grow dark, and I was scared stiff
and kept on thinking of my nice cosy bed. So I turned around and rushed
home again. My mother was just saying to my father, ‘I can’t think where
that child’s got to,’ when I sneaked in the back way and could smell the
lovely hot soup for supper.

“My father said, ‘Hello, chicken, where have you been?’ And I felt so
silly that I pretended I’d just lost my way, because suddenly it didn’t seem
such a good idea to run away.”

There was a short silence while Pearl pushed a small pebble about with
the toe of her shoe. Then she sighed, “Perhaps it’s not a good idea. It’s a
better idea if you come home with me instead.”

“Very well.” Meg smiled. “Is it far?”

“Miles,” declared Pearl cheerfully. “Perhaps we’d better start.”

Meg agreed that perhaps they had. She let Pearl help her strap up her
knapsack again and hoist it onto her back. Then they set off across a field,
Pearl stepping lightly and almost eagerly now.

The distance was not exactly “miles.” But they did have quite a long walk
before they came in sight of the most enchanting, small country house with
a very pretty flower garden set back from the road. In the distance, about
half a mile away, Meg could now see the outskirts of a village, which
appeared to cluster around an old Norman church, in the manner of so
many Northumbrian villages.

“This is where we’ve been living while Mommy’s on location,” Pearl

explained, as she pushed open the gate and led the way up the path. “She
goes out very early every day with Cecile. Then Nanny—”

But before she could say anything else, the front door flew open and a
tall, slightly disheveled-looking woman with an unnaturally pale face stood
in the doorway.
 “You naughty girl,” she cried, addressing Pearl and ignoring Meg entirely.
“You naughty, naughty girl! Where’ve you been?” The slight slurring of the
syllables, and the fact that she seemed to find it necessary to steady herself
with a hand on the side of the door, were not lost on Meg. At any other
time she might have put this down to fright over the disappearance of her
charge. But, remembering Pearl’s circumstantial report, she decided that
this woman was still suffering from the aftereffects of drink. Indeed, in her
anxiety, she had perhaps resorted to further artificial bolstering of her
morale.

“Pearl seems to have become rather scared on her own; she went off on
too long a walk,” Meg said crisply. “I understand you were asleep.”

“Thass a lie! I only closed my eyes for five minutes. I felt odd. I do
sometimes feel odd. Everybody feels odd sometimes.” The woman seemed
to realize that she was repeating herself unnecessarily and she levered
herself away from the door, and spoke with great and solemn dignity. “I’m
in charge here. What do you want?”

“Pearl has kindly asked me to tea,” Meg told her pleasantly but firmly.
“She and I will sit in the garden for a little while. And if you still feel odd,
you’d better go and lie down again. We’ll get tea for ourselves.”

“Who saysh you’ll get tea for yoursh ... yourselves?” said the woman
belligerently.
 “I do,” Meg told her. And, although she was a fair, rather slight girl, there
was something about her dark, uncompromising glance that evidently
pierced even this woman’s muddled consciousness.

“Very well,” she muttered. “Very well. I’m not one to quarrel. But ’smost
irregular. Irregular.”

Then she turned and went indoors, leaving Pearl—who had not uttered a
word during this conversation—and Meg to exchange a glance.

“You see,” Pearl said.

“Yes. I see. But there’s no need for us to talk about it.” Meg had no
intention of allowing this incident to impress itself upon the child more
than was necessary. “Shall we go and sit over there under the trees? It looks
as though there are some comfortable chairs.”

Pearl was only too willing. And as soon as she and Meg were ensconced
in chairs, she demanded, “Now tell me about you. You know about me.”

Meg smiled. “Well, I’ve told you my name and that I’m on a walking
holiday,” she said. “What else would you like to know?”

“Where do you live, have you got any children, and are you married?
Where are you going when you leave here, and—?”
 “Wait, wait!” Meg laughed. “Let’s start with the first questions. Up till
now I’ve lived in the south of England, in a seaside town. I’m not married
and I don’t have any children—”

“Do you have a mother and father?”

Meg hesitated, then said, “I have a father. My mother died some years
ago. And quite recently my father married again.”

“Then you have a stepmother?” Pearl looked ghoulishly impressed. “Is

she a wicked stepmother?”

“Oh no! Certainly not.” One could not possibly describe Claire as wicked.
Just selfish and acquisitive and disconcertingly coldhearted.

“What’s she like, then?” Pearl pressed.

“She’s very beautiful. And young. Only five or six years older than I am.”

“Do you like her?” inquired Pearl.

“Quite honestly, no.” Meg laughed a little deprecatingly. “But I suppose

it’s always difficult to be fair to someone who takes your place. Particularly
if your affections are involved.”
 She was speaking more to herself than to the child, really. But Pearl
seized the point with unusual acumen.

“You mean you had your father all to yourself, and now she has him and
they don’t want you?” she suggested, simplifying the situation in a way that
made Meg gasp—partly with surprise, partly because it hurt to have the
position defined with such innocent clarity.

She was silent. After a moment, Pearl asked, “When did she marry him?”

“Two weeks ago,” said Meg, reflecting with wry amusement that
unknowingly, the little girl had put the situation in the right terms.

“Only two weeks ago?” Pearl looked intrigued. “Then have you sort of
run away too?”

“Not quite.” Again Meg was struck by the child’s uncanny instinct for
defining a situation. “I would have had to go anyway. My father is a very
busy and popular doctor, and I’d run his home ever since my mother died.
But obviously when he married again, there was no real place for a grown
daughter any more. And, even though he was very nice about it—”

“Was she?” Pearl’s cool, thoughtful gray eyes were fixed on Meg.

“Not very. But that’s between you and me. Even my father didn’t know
about that, and I wouldn’t want him to. The whole thing boiled down to the
fact that it was time I broke loose and made my own life.”

“So you set off into the world to seek your fortune?” Pearl was evidently
a student of the more old-fashioned type of fairy story.

“Just about,” Meg agreed amusedly. And she found, to her surprise, that
she felt much less hurt and angry about the situation, now that she was
telling the story to this charming little girl.

Not for the world would she have told Pearl about the cold, ugly scene in
which Claire had made it clear how little Meg was wanted. And still less
would she have wished the child to know of the bitterness and pain she had
experienced as she had cheerfully wafted her handsome father off on his
second honeymoon, with the airy assurance that she herself would take a
leisurely holiday, and then set about finding the right job.

If her father had not entirely believed the bit about her wanting a job of
her own, at least he must have been glad she wanted to get one because
although he had emphasized that Meg’s home would always be open to her,
Claire had not supported this statement. It was only natural that he and his
young wife would be free to enjoy their own life together.

Meg saw—indeed, would in any circumstances have seen—the justice of

this. It was just that Claire’s attitude had made everything so unnecessarily
painful. And so, when her father and his new bride had left for their
honeymoon, Meg moved out of the home which was no longer home,
determined never to go back except when definitely invited.

The queer little girl was right, in a way. She too had run away. And so
determinedly that she had put most of the length of the country between
herself and home and was now tramping through the lovely hills of
Northumberland, with no immediate purpose in mind.

“You’re thinking an awful lot, aren’t you?” said Pearl kindly. “Are you
thinking what you’re going to do next?”

“I was really thinking how nice it is to tell my story to someone who’s

interested,” replied Meg, to the obvious and immense gratification of her
companion. “But there’s no doubt about what I have to do next, Pearl. I
have to find a job.”

“What sort of a job? You couldn’t be a nanny, could you?” exclaimed

Pearl, with what she evidently considered to be inspiration.

“Darling,” Meg laughed and put out her hand, which was instantly
clasped, “it’s terribly nice of you to think of me in that connection. But I’m
afraid I’m not a trained nanny.”

“I just thought—” began Pearl. Then she stopped, because there was the
sound of a car stopping outside, and a moment later the garden gate
opened, to admit a tall, fair young man, with very blue eyes in a very
tanned face.

“There’s my Uncle Dick!” exclaimed Pearl, jumping to her feet. She

rushed to meet the visitor, who swung her up and kissed her, with an air of
affection that commended itself to Meg.

She stood up as Pearl led her uncle back to the tree under which they had
been sitting. And at the same moment as Pearl said, “This is my friend,
Meg Greenway,” she began to explain, “I’m afraid I am intruding but—”

“I’m sure you’re not,” replied the young man, with a friendly smile. “No
one ever intrudes in the country. I’m Dick Manners, by the way. I suppose
you’re a friend of my sister.”

“No, not really. You see—”

“She’s a friend of mine,” Pearl insisted. “And she’s staying to tea. Would
you like to stay to tea, Uncle Dick?”

“More than anything else in the world,” said her uncle, collapsing
gracefully into a chair. “Do you have the kettle on?”

“No. But I’ll go and put it on.” Pearl jumped up again with alacrity.

“Shall I help you?” Meg asked. But Pearl shook her head emphatically.
 “You talk to Uncle Dick,” she said. “Tell him about meeting me.” So, as
Pearl sped across the lawn and into the house, Meg turned to find the young
man smiling, lazily, but admiringly at her.

“How did you meet?” he inquired.

“I’m afraid she was running away.” Meg felt someone should know how
deeply disturbed the child had been. “And although it’s not my business to
say so, I think if her mother looks into the situation thoroughly, she’ll find
she would like to fire the woman in charge here.”

“My sister never goes into anything thoroughly, unless it concerns her
own comfort, financial position or artistic future,” declared the young man
agreeably. “If possible, she’s even lazier and more self-centered than I am.”

“That’s nothing to be proud of,” observed Meg with dry candor.

“I’m not proud of it. I’m stating a fact: One should always look facts in
the face. Even disagreeable ones about oneself and one’s family.” Her
companion grinned. But then he hitched himself up in his chair, with
slightly less abandon, and went on, “However, tell me why Pearl was
running away, and why the current nanny won’t do. Apart from the fact that
she’s not good-looking.”

Meg would have liked him to take the situation more seriously, but
obviously that was not his style. So, she briefly described what Pearl had
told her, adding a few words about the scene that had confirmed her own
suspicions.

“Hm, yes. That won’t do, of course,” he agreed. “I’ll talk to Felicity about
it. Did Pearl tell you anything else about this interesting ménage?”

“No,” said Meg, a little stiffly in case he should think her inquisitive.
Then she added, “Except that she said she wished her father would come
back.”

“Her father?” the young man looked astonished. “Her father’s dead. He
died before she was born.”

“But,” Meg frowned puzzledly, “she said he went away last week, and
that her mother told her he wouldn’t be coming back again.”

“Oh,” a thoughtful look came over the good-looking face, “I see. At least,
I think I see. As you’ve probably gathered, my sister, Pearl’s mother, is
Felicity Manners, the actress.”

“No, I hadn’t gathered that. At least, I mean I hadn’t put the two names
together in my mind. But of course I know her name quite well. She’s very
beautiful, isn’t she?”

“Ravishing,” said her brother absently. “The kind men are always falling
in love with. Occasionally she reciprocates. She did while she was here,
doing the outside work on her next film. Got herself engaged to a fellow
who lives and works in Newcastle, about twenty miles away.”

“Yes, I know.” Meg had studied the geography well before embarking on
her hiking tour.

“They were going to have been married in the autumn, and I suppose
Felicity had been preparing Pearl for this addition to the household by
telling her Leigh was her new father.”

“And now?” asked Meg, as he paused.

“Well, I’m afraid she’ll have to set her heart on something else.” Dick
Manners shrugged, though not unsympathetically. “I understand the
engagement was broken some time last week.”

Meg was silent. Then she said, as quietly as she could, “Pearl was really
distressed. I think that was one reason she decided to run away.”

“Kids usually have that idea once in their lives.”

“True. But few put it into practice with any seriousness.”

“And she was serious?”

 “At least she was a long way from home, and rather aimless and hungry.
That isn’t usual for a little girl of eight—nine—whatever she is.”

“Nine,” he said absently, but he frowned. “It wouldn’t have happened if

this wretched woman had been doing her job.”

“No, of course not. But it did happen. And I think someone should see it
doesn’t happen again.”

“Yes, yes.” He was still frowning thoughtfully. “The real trouble is that
there’s not much place for a child in Felicity’s life. She’s the typical
butterfly, you know. Always changing course and deciding she wants
something different.”

Meg was silent, for fear of saying too much. After a moment, Pearl’s
attractive uncle went on musingly, “Funny Pearl should pick Leigh as a
desirable father figure. I wouldn’t have thought he’d appeal to a child. Sort
of real and earnest, and determined to have his own way.”

“Maybe she felt that at least he knew where he was going and what he
wanted,” Meg suggested dryly.

“Well yes. I suppose Leigh doesn’t leave any one in doubt about that,”
Dick agreed.
 Then Pearl appeared with a tea tray and her uncle got up to help her, with
more energy than Meg had expected.

It was an enjoyable meal they had together, there in the garden. Evidently
Pearl was used to making tea, for she produced a satisfactory brew. Like all
children, she was pleased to have her social efforts praised, and Meg noted
again that she and her uncle were on excellent terms.

Lightweight he might be—though not, Meg thought, as light weight as he

pretended—but certainly Dick Manners was good company, and there was
no lack of chatter and laughter.

At the end, Meg said, “If you are going to stay until your sister comes
home, I don’t think that there’s any reason for me to do so.”

“But you promised!” Pearl cried reproachfully. “You said you’d stay until
Mommy came in!”

“I know, darling. But your uncle is here—”

“I think I’d like you to tell my sister your own story as well,” Dick
Manners said.

“Well, in that case,” Meg ruffled Pearl’s hair affectionately, “of course I’ll
stay. Let’s clear up the dishes, Pearl.”
 Pearl was quite willing, and together they went into the house, and into a
large, light kitchen.

There was still no sign of Nanny and Meg hated to think what might have
happened if she had not found Pearl sitting by the roadside. This reflection
stiffened her resolution not to leave the place until she had impressed upon
Pearl’s apparently flighty mother the necessity of finding someone
responsible to look after the little girl.

When they had washed the dishes Pearl insisted on showing her around
the house. From the luxurious but impersonal look of the place, Meg
judged it was rented fully furnished and that a good part of Pearl’s life was
spent in similar, impermanent surroundings.

It could have been worse, of course. The child might have been neglected
in poor or sordid surroundings. But somehow the combination of real
luxury and so little loving care struck Meg as particularly pathetic.

“That’s Mommy,” Pearl volunteered at this moment, indicating a

somewhat idealized photograph. In this case, the subject was so genuinely
beautiful that the slightly blurred technique made her look angelic.

“She’s got gray eyes,” Pearl explained, “and her hair’s a sort of reddish-
gold. It’s very pretty.”
 “It must be,” Meg agreed, and found that she had nothing further to say
about the beautiful Felicity Manners.

“And that’s my father.” Pearl brought over for Meg’s inspection a less
idealized study of a man with fine eyes, an obstinate chin, and a singularly
well-cut mouth.

Wondering if even the casual Felicity would keep a photograph of a

rejected suitor around, Meg asked, “Do you mean your real father? or the—
the one who went away last week?”

“Oh, not my real father. He died before I was born.” Pearl quite cheerfully
relegated him to the vanished past. “That’s the father I almost had. He’s
nice, isn’t he?”

“Very,” said Meg somewhat helplessly. “He looks faintly familiar to me,
though I don’t know why. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before.”

“You wouldn’t have seen a photograph of him in the papers either. He’s a
businessman, not an actor or anything,” explained Pearl.

And then again there was the sound of a car stopping outside the house,
and Pearl exclaimed, “That must be Mommy,” and hastily replaced the
photograph in its inconspicuous position.
 Perhaps feeling that Meg might be nervous, Pearl took her by the hand,
and, as they stood waiting, Meg heard a sweet voice call out, “Hello, Dick!
Come on in. I want to talk to you. Heavens, I’m almost dead!”

Then the front door opened and Felicity Manners came in, followed
closely by a small, dry-looking Frenchwoman and, more leisurely, by her
brother.

“Why, hello, pet. Have you got a visitor?” Felicity stooped to brush her
cheek gracefully against her child’s. Then she straightened up and smiled
at Meg, as Pearl announced proudly, “This is my friend Meg Greenway.”

“Charming,” said her mother vaguely. “Come into the living-room

everyone and let’s sit down. My feet are killing me.” She swept on ahead
and the others automatically fell in behind her, Meg noticed, as a
procession.

“Take my coat, Cecile.” She slipped her coat gracefully from her
shoulders to the floor, from which Cecile retrieved it and scuttled away.
“And pour some drinks, Dick.” She flung herself unerringly into the most
comfortable chair in the room, kicked off her shoes, and bestowed upon
them all impartially the same sweet but absent smile that she had given
Meg before.

She was far more vital and interesting than the photograph had suggested.
Perhaps the first thing one noticed was her loveliness, but the next, so far as
Meg was concerned, was the firm set of her mouth.

Dick Manners passed drinks around, while his sister poured out a stream
of light chatter about the events of the day—her day, of course—and Meg
tried to find an opening to explain her own presence. Felicity Manners
seemed uninterested in how she had come there or what she had to do with
Pearl.

“Mommy—” began Pearl once.

“Yes, darling? Take my shoes and ask Cecile for my slippers. The new
gold ones. We got the whole of that last scene, Dick. The light was just
right, and Charles insisted we do it. It nearly killed me, of course, but I
suppose it was worth it.”

“No doubt.” Dick seemed to take his sister’s near demise very calmly.
“But Miss Greenway has something to tell you, and I think you should
listen.”

“Miss Greenway?” Felicity looked around questioningly.

“You’ve just been introduced to her by Pearl.”

“Why, yes, of course. How sweet of you to bother with my little girl.
What is it? Please don’t say you want me to open a bazaar or something. I
don’t have a minute these days. But if it’s only a case of an autograph—”
 Meg explained that she did not want a bazaar opened. “It’s about Pearl,”
she said, “and the woman who was supposed to look after her—”

“Oh, Nanny. Where is she, by the way?”

“Upstairs, sleeping off an excess of gin,” said Dick Manners, who

evidently knew the best way of diverting his sister’s attention from herself
for a moment.

“Gin? Where did she get it? Oh, don’t say she got it from the cellar!
That’s something special that Charles got hold of, and I was keeping it for
—”

“I don’t know where she got it, and I don’t care,” declared Felicity’s
brother with more firmness than Meg had expected. “The point is that she
did get hold of it, and that for the whole day she has been incapable of
looking after Pearl. You can’t possibly leave her in charge of the child
again. I don’t know what you’re going to do tomorrow, but—”

“Tomorrow we’re shooting the wedding scene,” explained Felicity rather

dreamily, “in that gorgeous little Norman church. If it had been built on
purpose it couldn’t be more suitable.”

“And what about Pearl?” inquired her brother persistently. “She can’t be
left with that woman again. In fact, the woman must leave tonight or first
thing tomorrow. And if I understand the situation correctly, your
housekeeper is looking after her own sick daughter. You’ll have to leave
Cecile here.”

“Cecile? But I need Cecile,” said Felicity.

“Then who is going to look after Pearl?”

“I don’t know.” Felicity looked around, as though someone might

materialize out of the shadows and settle this minor problem for her. “What
will you be doing tomorrow, Dick?”

“Driving to Edinburgh on business, and I can’t take Pearl with me. It’s not
that kind of trip.”

“Oh. Well, then,” the limpid gaze traveled on and came to rest on the only
other person present, “what about you, Miss—Miss Greenway? You seem
to have a wonderful way with children, and Pearl sounded quite fond of
you already. Would there be any chance...” She paused, allowing an
exquisite and touching smile to complete the appeal for someone to come
to the aid of beauty in distress.

“But, Miss Manners,” Meg hardly knew whether to be amused, touched

or taken aback by this artfully artless appeal, “you don’t know a thing
about me.”
 “Indeed I do! I know you have a kind and charming face, and that you’re
absolutely trustworthy,” declared Felicity. “I can tell that at a glance. I’m an
excellent judge of character, and I always make up my mind about people
on first sight.”

Meg stopped herself from asking if this power had been used when she
had selected the current nanny. Instead, though flattered against her will,
she began to explain that she was not a trained governess.

“No, of course not. I realize that. But that isn’t really what Pearl needs
now. She needs someone just like you.”

There was something almost hypnotic about the persuasiveness of the

charming voice, and Meg sensed dimly why this woman nearly always got
what she wanted. “Someone kind, reliable, firm and resourceful. Even if it
were only for a little while, while I'm so desperately occupied with this
present film—”

“Miss Manners, I’m a complete stranger to you!”

“You don’t seem like it at all.” Miss Manners gave her famous smile.
“There are some people you know almost from the first time you meet
them, don’t you think? And anyway, what did you say your name was?”

“Greenway,” replied Meg rather helplessly. “Meg Greenway.”

 “Well, there you are! I’m sure I know someone with that name. Don’t we
know someone called Greenway, Dick? Yes, of course we do! Why,
Leigh’s sister married someone called Greenway only recently. A doctor
with a difficult daughter. But entirely respectable and reliable people.
Perhaps they’re relations?”

“Incredibly, I think ... they might be.” Meg was staring wide-eyed, at
Felicity Manners. “What was the name of L—of your friend’s sister?”

“Her Christian name? I haven’t the faintest idea. Oh, yes, I have it. It was
Claire. I remember now, Claire Sontigan. Do you know her?”

“Yes,” said Meg slowly. “I know her. She married my father. And I’m the
difficult daughter.”

“Oh, dear, I’m so sorry!” Felicity sounded genuinely contrite. “What a

stupid thing for me to say. And of course it isn’t true. It’s just the sort of
thing Leigh would say. So difficult and intolerant himself. That’s one
reason I broke off my engagement to him ... last week,” she added, as
though that might put her on the same side of the fence with Meg. “Please
forgive me and say you will look after Pearl for me.”

“There’s ... there’s nothing to forgive, Miss Manners. I’m not particularly
fond of my stepmother, and I certainly don’t care what her brother thinks
about me. But—”
 “That’s splendid, then,” said Felicity, with an air of great relief. “And I
can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re going to look after Pearl for me. It
will be a great weight off my mind.”

“But I haven’t said—” began Meg.

“Darling,” interrupted Felicity, but now she was addressing Pearl, who
had just come back into the room, “what do you think? We’re going to send
away that horrid Nanny who didn’t look after you, and Miss Greenway is
going to stay and look after you instead. Isn’t that lovely?”

“Oh, Meg!” Pearl dropped the gold slippers she was holding, and rushed
across the room. “Oh, Meg!” And she flung her arms round Meg with such
uninhibited fervor that Meg felt a lump come into her throat.

Not until that moment had she realized how unwanted she had felt in the
last few weeks. There had been no one to hug her and make her feel
wanted. Now, as this little girl clung to her, life suddenly began to take on a
warm significance again.

Whatever she had meant to say, in protest or argument, died in her throat.
All she could do was kiss Pearl’s little upturned face and say, “It’s going to
be nice, isn’t it?”

“Wonderful!” declared Pearl. “Can Meg have the room next to mine,
Mommy?”
 “If you like.” Felicity cared little about detail, once the essentials were
settled to her satisfaction. “Who’s going to tackle Nanny?”

She looked at Dick, who looked at Meg. “I will, if you want,” said Meg.
She was rather amused by the concerted sigh of relief which drifted
through the room.

“You’re going to be such a comfort to me,” Felicity declared. “Pearl will

show you your room. And when you’ve settled in and ... had a few words
with Nanny, perhaps you’d see about Pearl’s supper. Cecile will attend to
dinner, which will be at eight, and, this evening anyway, I hope you’ll share
it with me and my brother. She looked inquiringly at Dick, who nodded.

“Thank you,” said Meg, secretly amused by the way Felicity’s charming
vagueness could change to clear-cut decision when she was outlining what
she wanted. Then she went upstairs with Pearl to find a small but pleasant
bedroom.

“Do you like it?” Pearl asked eagerly.

“Very much,” Meg assured her. “Now I want you to wash and do your
hair and occupy yourself in your own room for a little while.”

“Are you going to speak to Nanny?”

“Yes.”
 “Can I come too?”

“No,” said Meg, agreeably but finally. “I won’t be long.”

And she wasn’t long. As her father’s secretary and receptionist, Meg had
handled many kinds of people. She was polite with the resentful, but now
thoroughly scared, woman, but she made the situation crystal clear and
allowed no compromise.

After checking with the admiring Felicity, she saw to it that two weeks’
wages were paid and, having firmly speeded the woman’s packing, she
telephoned for the village taxi and sent her on her Way.

“Why, the whole thing took less than an hour!” exclaimed Felicity
incredulously, when Meg looked into her room to report that it was over.

“There wasn’t any need for it to take longer,” Meg assured her smilingly.
Then she went downstairs again to see about Pearl’s supper.

As she turned the bend in the stairs and looked down into the hall, she
saw that the front door was open, and that a tall man was standing there,
with his back to the mellow evening light.

“Can I help you?” She ran down the stairs, and at the sound of her
footsteps he looked up. She saw his features quite clearly then, and stopped
dead, three steps above him.
 Even without the photograph she would have known him by the likeness
to Claire, which was more striking in real life. And even as she looked
down at him he said, with the air of one who didn’t take no for an answer,
“Is Miss Manners at home? I’d like to see her. The name is Leigh
Sontigan.”
 CHAPTER TWO
As she looked at Leigh Sontigan for the first time, Meg was aware of such
conflicting emotions that it was hard to say which predominated—anxiety
in case Pearl should see him, nervous curiosity as to the effect her rejected
fiancé would have upon Felicity Manners, plain resentment because he was
Claire’s brother and had spoken so disparagingly of herself.

All this combined to make her tone excessively cool as she said, “Miss
Manners has had a very busy day and she’s resting at the moment. If you’ll
go into the living room. I’ll find out if she is seeing anyone.”

She saw a smile flash into his dark, mocking eyes, as though in amused
appreciation of the barrier she was erecting. But he said bluntly, “Who are
you? I thought I knew everyone in Felicity’s entourage.”

“I look after Miss Manners’ little girl,” Meg replied coldly. “Will you
wait, please?”

Then she turned and went upstairs. She made herself go at an unhurried
pace, but she was aware that, instead of going into the living room, he
stood and looked after her.

“Oh, dear, what is it now?” inquired Felicity fretfully, as Meg knocked

and entered.
 “I’m sorry. Someone wants to see you. I said I would inquire if you were
too tired for visitors.”

“I’m much too tired for visitors. Who is it?” said Felicity.

“It’s L—Mr. Sontigan.”

“Leigh?” Felicity, who had been reclining elegantly on a couch sat up

with energy. “What does he want? He didn’t say anything that would give
you a clue?”

“No! He just said he would like to see you and gave his name.”

“I wonder what he wants.” Felicity frowned, obviously torn between

curiosity and a desire to avoid trouble. “Go and ask him what he wants,
Miss Greenway.”

“I don’t think I could do that!” Meg looked taken aback. “We’re perfect
strangers.”

“But you’re his sister’s stepdaughter. I don’t call that being a stranger.”

“He has no idea of the connection,” Meg said stiffly. “And, as a matter of
fact, I’d rather not emphasize it.”
 “You don’t want to be identified as the difficult daughter?” suggested
Felicity, with an unexpected flash of mischief. “All right. Well, I suppose
I’d better come down and see him, though I expect it will only mean a
fight.”

Rising gracefully from her sofa, she wrapped a glamorous housecoat

around her and went out of the room.

Meg, meanwhile, went in search of Pearl, whom she found happily curled
up on the window seat in her bedroom with a book in her hand.

The little girl looked up eagerly. “Is it all settled?”

“Is all what settled?” Meg smiled.

“Why, the business with Nanny, of course!”

“Oh, yes.” The episode with Nanny had been so overshadowed by the
arrival of Leigh Sontigan that Meg had almost forgotten it. “You don’t need
to worry about her again. She’s gone.”

“Gone?” Pearl looked impressed: “You do solve problems quickly, don’t

you?”

“I don’t know,” said Meg, thinking of the large, uncompromising problem

downstairs. “What a pleasant room this is. Would you like your supper
upstairs? You’ve had a tiring day, and it would keep us both out of Cecile’s
way while she is preparing dinner.”

“Will you stay upstairs and talk to me while I have my supper?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then I’d like that,” Pearl declared with a sigh of satisfaction. “Shall I
fetch my supper?”

“No, darling. I’ll get it for you. You can read a few more pages of your
book.”

“You are nice,” said Pearl, in the same tone her mother had used when she
had said Meg was going to be a comfort to her. “If only Leigh—if only my
father would come back now I’d be perfectly happy.”

Feeling she was being mean, even though keeping Pearl free from further
emotional upset, Meg refrained from any hint that Leigh was in the house.
Instead, she repeated that it would be fun for Pearl to stay in her room and
have supper there, and then she went downstairs to the kitchen, where she
found Cecile preparing dinner.

“She has gone, that Na-nee?” inquired the Frenchwoman, giving the word
a contemptuous inflection.
 “Oh, yes, she’s gone.”

“Madame will be pleased,” said Cecile, as though no further accolade was

necessary. “You have done well.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Meg smiled. “What do you suppose I should
give Pearl for her supper?”

“I shall prepare her a little omelette,” the Frenchwoman declared

agreeably. “Sit down, Mademoiselle. You will be tired after your encounter
with that Na-nee. In six minutes I shall have little Pearl’s supper ready, and
you shall take it up to her.”

“Thank you very much. I’m quite sure your cooking is better than mine.”

“Pas du tout,” said Cecile politely. But it was evident that she agreed with
Meg entirely.

It was a pleasure to watch the unhurried deftness with which she set about
making Pearl’s supper. Meg was enjoying the sight when Dick Manners
came into the kitchen from the garden.

“Who’s Madame’s visitor?” he inquired of Cecile.

“Visitor? Madame should be resting. She should not be receiving

visitors,” declared Cecile quickly.
 “Well, she is,” said Dick, unmoved. “I could see someone talking to her in
the living room, but I couldn’t see who it was.”

“She should be resting,” repeated Cecile severely.

“She was resting,” Meg explained, with a faintly guilty feeling. “But Mr.
Sontigan called, and when I told her, she went downstairs to speak to him.”

“Leigh, eh?” Dick Manners looked interested, while Cecile gave a slight
screech of disapproval.

“You should not have admitted him,” she declared. “You should have sent
him about his business, that one.”

“He’d already admitted himself,” Meg replied dryly. “And as for sending
him about his business, I’m quite sure I haven’t got what it takes for that
task, Cecile.”

“Madame was so tired ... she’s so easily upset,” lamented Cecile.

“Nonsense, Cecile. She’s a lot tougher than you ever let on,” declared
Dick callously. “She can manage most things and people if she puts her
mind to it. Even Mr. Sontigan. Though it would be interesting,” he added
reflectively, “to know just why he turned up again.”

“Yes, indeed!” Cecile was curious, as well.

 Pearl’s supper, however, was ready, so Meg took it and went upstairs,
leaving Dick Manners and the devoted Cecile to speculate as they pleased.

Pearl was delighted by the novelty of having her meal in her room, and
she obviously enjoyed her supper. But she was tired too, and, as soon as the
meal was finished, Meg hurried her off to bed.

“Say goodnight to Mommy for me.” She was evidently not expecting any
visit from her mother. “And oh, Meg, I’m so glad I started to run away and
met you.”

“And I’m glad you decided to come back, or else we would never have
arrived at the present arrangement,” Meg pointed out as, smiling, she bent
to kiss the little girl goodnight. Then she took the tray of empty dishes and
went out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.

As she started downstairs, Felicity came running up and brushed past her
without a word. Her color was high and her eyes bright, and Meg thought
she detected anger in the set of the pretty mouth.

Presumably Leigh Sontigan had gone, but as she came further down the
stairs, she saw that he was standing in the hall a little aimlessly.

He looked up, as he had before, at the sound of her footsteps. And then, as
Meg reached the bottom stair, he came across and asked abruptly,
 “Did you say you looked after Pearl?”

“Yes.” Meg drew back slightly at the almost harsh question.

“May I go up and see her?”

“No.”

“Why not? Pearl and I are good friends. She’ll think badly of me when
she learns I’ve been here and I didn’t go up and see her.”

“She won’t hear about your coming,” Meg replied dryly. “I shall see to
that.”

“You will?” He seemed staggered, as well as angry, that she should take
so much on herself. “Why should you concern yourself with this?”

“Because Pearl’s welfare is my business now,” Meg said shortly. “I don’t

doubt that you and she are good friends. But it seems that the child has
been told she won’t see you again. She was upset about it but I’m not
prepared to have her put on a sort of emotional seesaw by your appearing
again.”

“I may be coming back into the picture permanently, for all you know.”
He spoke with a touch of angry amusement.
 “Mr. Sontigan, that isn’t my affair until it happens.” Meg spoke coolly
and decisively. “My information is that you are not going to figure in
Pearl’s life any more. Until I have her mother’s instructions to the contrary,
I am not going to have the child upset by confusing that issue.”

“So, as far as you’re concerned, I don’t exist, eh?”

“As far as I’m concerned, you don’t exist,” agreed Meg dryly.

He looked half amused, half incredulous. Then, narrowing those bold,

dark eyes consideringly, he asked, with real curiosity, “What’s your name?”

“Does that matter?”

“I’d like to know it. Unless there’s some mystery about it.” He looked
even more mocking now, as though he thought she was making this
absurdly heavy.

“There’s no mystery about it.” Meg slightly raised her chin and look up at
him defiantly. “My name is Meg Greenway.”

“Meg ... Greenway?” He repeated the name, as though it struck a chord in

his memory. “Good lord! Meg Greenway? Then you and I are some sort of
relation!”
 “Indeed we aren’t,” Meg assured him with cool emphasis. “But my, sister,
Claire, has just married your father.”

“That doesn’t make us relations.”

“But some sort of connection.”

She was silent. And after a moment, he laughed rather wickedly, and said,

“A connection you’re not anxious to emphasize, I take it?”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know.” He ran an amused glance over her. “I never thought about
it until this moment.”

“Well, I don’t know that there’s much point in thinking about it now,”
Meg said, as composedly as she could in the face of that faintly mocking
interest. “We’re not very likely to meet each other again.”

“Don’t be so sure of that!” His momentary anger seemed to have passed

completely. “You’ll see me again, my reluctant little relation.”

And, with a slight gesture of farewell, he laughed, turned on his heel and
went out of the house, leaving behind him such a strong impression that it
was a moment before Meg could shake off the curiously compelling effect
which he had had upon her.

She was actually trembling a little, as she turned towards the kitchen and
found an approving Cecile standing in the doorway.

“Ah, that was well done, Mademoiselle.” Cecile nodded vigorously. “I

did not hear what was said, for I am not the eavesdropper. But I saw that
this time you sent him about his business.”

“Did I?” said Meg doubtfully, for that was not at all what it had felt like.
But neither with Cecile nor with anyone else was she anxious to discuss her
encounter with Leigh Sontigan, so she handed over the tray and went back
upstairs, telling herself that she was not really trembling, but just a little
tired and shivery.

It was an uneventful evening after that. At dinner time, in spite of her

presence, Dick Manners asked his sister with frank curiosity, “What did
Leigh want?”

“To talk things over again, of course.”

“I thought everything was irrevocably settled.”

“It was. Only to Leigh nothing is ever irrevocably settled until he has his
own way.”
 Dick laughed. “Yes, he’s an obstinate devil. Did he get you to see things
in a different light?”

“Certainly not,” said Felicity composedly. “I’m an obstinate devil too

when I feel like it.”

“How true!” agreed her brother, with feeling but without rancor. “Well,
I’m glad we have Miss Greenway now, to see that Pearl isn’t dragged in
and out of these emotional upsets. It’s agreed, I take it,” he glanced from
one woman to the other, “that no mention is made to Pearl of Leigh’s visit
here this evening.”

“Of course,” said Meg gravely.

“Of course,” agreed Felicity absently. And there the matter rested.

Meg slept well in her comfortable bed, and woke to a beautiful, fresh
morning. Pearl was standing beside her bed in her pyjamas.

“Hello, darling.” Sleepily, she stretched out a hand and patted the little
girl’s cheek. “What time is it?”

“Half-past seven.”

“Is that your usual getting-up time?”

 “Well, Mommy and Cecile always leave very early. Mommy calls it going
away in the middle of the night. It has something to do with getting the
right light for filming. I like to get up and have breakfast with her.”

“Then I’ll get up too.” Meg sat up, yawned and smiled. “There are one or
two things I must ask your mother about our program for today.”

This seemed to delight Pearl, who skipped off to her own room to get
dressed.

Later, over the breakfast table, Meg discovered that Felicity was a very
businesslike person at the beginning of the day. Also, somewhat
unexpectedly, she ate a good breakfast, with the grim comment that she
never knew when she would get the next meal. “I’ll be away all day,” she
informed Meg. “You can make what arrangements you like. No, there’s no
need to bother about household shopping. Cecile attends to that. All you
need to do is to see that Pearl has her meals at the right times and doesn’t
get into mischief.”

“Does she have to do any lessons?”

“I don’t know.” Already Felicity's thoughts were flitting ahead to her own
affairs. “Do you do any lessons, darling?”

“No. It’s vacation,” Pearl pointed out reproachfully.

 “All right. You can have a picnic ... or go into Newcastle, if you like. But
if you go into Newcastle,” Felicity frowned slightly, “don’t go running
around trying to find Leigh. I’m not very pleased with him right now.”

Meg was so staggered by this casual mention of a more or less forbidden

subject that she could hardly decide for a moment whether this remark had
been addressed to her or to Pearl. Pearl, however, was in no doubt. Her
eyes lit up with sudden interest, and she asked eagerly, “Is Leigh in
Newcastle, then?”

“Yes, of course. You know he lives there.”

“I thought,” Pearl’s voice shook, “you said he’d gone away and would
never come back.”

“Did I? Oh, well, never’s a long time.” Felicity smiled to herself in a way
that made Meg want to slap her.

“Do you mean he hasn’t gone away?” Pearl persisted.

“He hasn’t gone away from Newcastle,” her mother said impatiently.
“You don’t go away from your home and your business just because ...
well...” Even she seemed to see that the conversation was unsuitable for
small ears. “Anyway, Pearl, that’s no concern of yours. Just don’t go
around trying to find Leigh. And don’t go to his office.”
 “No,” Pearl shook her head obediently, but Meg noticed her tone was
breathless with excitement. “Only, if we just happened to see him, that
would be different, wouldn’t it?”

“Madame,” Cecile put her head in, “the car is here. And I have brought
down your fur jacket. The wind is cold.”

“Nonsense. It’s a lovely day, Cecile. Just fresh and pleasant.” The
Frenchwoman shuddered exaggeratedly and muttered something
uncomplimentary about the English climate.

“All right.” Felicity laughed and carelessly slipped her arms into the wide
sleeves of a beautiful mink jacket. “It’s becoming, anyway. Well, enjoy
yourselves.” She blew a kiss impartially to Pearl and Meg. “And don’t get
into mischief, either of you.” She flashed a smile at Meg, and went out of
the room.

“Mommy,” Pearl rushed after her, “if we do go into Newcastle, and we do

see Leigh quite by accident—”

“Don’t be silly, darling. Accidents like that don’t happen.” Meg heard
Felicity say sharply. Then the front door closed, and Pearl came slowly
back into the room, as the car drove away.

“Come and finish your breakfast, dear.” Meg tried to speak normally.
 “Did you hear what Mommy said?” Pearl obediently sat down again and
began to butter a piece of toast. “Leigh hasn’t gone away after all. That’s
my father, you know. At least, he’s the one who was going to be my father.
I don’t think he’s going to be my father after all.” She nodded her head
thoughtfully. “I think that was what Mommy meant. But he hasn’t gone
away. He’s in Newcastle. Shall we go to Newcastle for the day, Meg?”

“I thought a picnic would be nicer, especially as it’s such a lovely day,”

Meg said casually.

“I’d rather go to Newcastle.”

“Why, Pearl?”

Pearl looked vague and oddly like her mother for a moment. “It’s a very
nice town,” she said innocently.

“I’m sure it is.” Meg suppressed a smile. “But one can go into town
almost any time, whereas for a picnic we really need a nice day, like this
one.”

“I’d rather go to Newcastle,” repeated Pearl, with an obstinacy Meg had

not expected.

“Even if I would much rather go on a picnic?” Meg permitted herself to

smile then.
 “I want to go to Newcastle,” repeated Pearl, with the persistence of a
character in Russian drama. Meg heard an ominous quiver in her voice, and
she knew that she would gain nothing by adding to the child’s nervous
frustration. To make a big issue of the matter would be the biggest mistake
of all. So she said calmly, “Very well, Pearl dear, if you’re so set on it,
we’ll go into Newcastle today. And if it’s nice tomorrow, we’ll have our
picnic then.”

“Oh, yes, that will be lovely!”

Like her mother, Pearl was amiable once she had her own way over
something she cared a lot about.

So they washed the breakfast dishes together and Pearl actually sang to
herself, in between much chatter. Then they got ready to take the bus to
Newcastle.

“The buses go every half hour, at ten after and 20 minutes to the hour,”
Pearl explained. “Oh, Meg, I’m so glad we’re going!”

“Well, then, so am I, if it means so much to you.” Meg smiled. But to

herself she thought, I hope she’s not going to be disappointed when we
don’t meet him. The chances are a hundred to one against it in a place that
size. Fortunately, I suppose, though it’s a little difficult to know what to
hope, now that her mother has stirred up the situation again.
 The bus stop was just outside the village church, and as they went there,
Meg noticed that many interested glances were cast in Pearl’s direction.
She seemed unaware of the fact. If people looked at her in a friendly way,
she smiled back at them with open .pleasure. But she seemed not to have
realized that, as the child of a well-known personality, she commanded a
certain amount of interest herself. To this extent she was delightfully
unspoiled.

Purworth, pronounced, to the confusion of visitors, Purth, was one of the

many enchanting old villages found all over mid and north
Northumberland. Its small Norman church (now roped off for the purpose
of Felicity’s film), its one meandering main street, and its ruined castle on
the hill, combined to make a scene so enchantingly picturesque that Meg
would gladly have lingered. But Pearl hurried her along.

“There are lots of castles round here,” she explained. “It’s lovely. Like
living in a history book. Do you like history, Meg?” Meg said that she did.

“Which side are you on in the Civil War?” Pearl asked anxiously. “King
or Parliament?”

It was evidently a matter of importance to her, and when Meg said stoutly,
“I’m for the King,” she gave sigh of relief, and said, “So am I. I wouldn’t
have liked it if you’d been for Cromwell. When we get to Newcastle, I’ll
show you the cathedral with its lantern tower. Do you know the story about
it?”
 “No.” Meg shook her head. “But tell me, how do you come to know so
much history, at your age, by the way?”

“Leigh told me. He tells me lots of things about Northumberland. He says

most people never notice it because they think it has nothing but coal pits
and slag heaps, and they just rush through it on their way to Scotland.”

Meg laughed, but she could not quite imagine the bold, mocking man
who had spoken to her last night really bothering to make history
interesting for a child of nine.

“Shall I tell you the story now?” demanded Pearl, as soon as the
conductor had given them their tickets.

“Yes, please.”

“Well, during the Civil War, Newcastle was held by the Royalists, and the
others were besieging it. Because Newcastle wouldn’t give in, they
threatened to blow up the famous lantern tower. Everyone was very sad
about it, but the Governor of the town sent back a message to say they
could jolly well blow up the tower if they wanted to, but they would be
blowing up their own men too, because that was where he was putting all
the prisoners. Leigh said it was a wonderful idea. It was, wasn’t it?”

“I suppose it was, provided you weren’t one of the prisoners,” agreed

Meg, with the certainty that Leigh Sontigan would have fitted admirably
into this picture of past violence and ingenuity.

“Oh, the prisoners were all right,” explained Pearl earnestly, because she
was a tender-hearted little girl, “Of course the Roundheads didn’t dare
carry out their threat then, and so the lantern tower was saved. I’ll show
you when we get there. You’d like to see that, wouldn’t you?”

“I’d love to see it,” Meg said sincerely.

“You didn’t really mind coming to Newcastle, instead of going on a

picnic, did you?” Pearl slipped her hand coaxingly into Meg’s, as though,
now that she had had her way, she felt a few twinges of conscience.

“Darling, I’m delighted to come to Newcastle, particularly as I have you

to show me around.”

This gave to Pearl a gratifying responsibility, which she proceeded to

discharge with enthusiasm as soon as the bus had deposited them in the
Haymarket. She even, Meg thought, forgot about Leigh Sontigan for a
while, in the pleasure of conducting her companion through the busy streets
to the cathedral of St. Nicholas.

Here they spent some time, during which Meg good-humoredly entered
into a verbal reconstruction of the scene that was reputed to have taken
place during the Civil War. And because the exercise seemed to have
sharpened both their appetites, they had lunch in one of the nearby hotels.
 After lunch it was not quite so easy to maintain Pearl’s interest in sight-
seeing. Meg noticed that, as they walked through the streets toward the
castle, the child’s attention wandered. It was obvious that she was searching
the crowds for someone.

It made Meg’s heart ache, but there was little she could do about it. For,
with the situation between Leigh Sontigan and Pearl’s mother so tiresomely
obscure, it was impossible to either encourage or discourage an affection
that could make the little girl equally happy or miserable.

The castle itself, with its ancient museum, occupied Pearl for a while, but
she was too young to be interested in many of the exhibits. And at one
point she took Meg’s hand and said, “We went right past Leigh’s office on
our way here, but we didn’t see him.”

“Maybe that was just as well, since your mother said she didn’t want you
to seek him out,” Meg said gravely.

“But if we saw him by chance, that would be different, wouldn’t it?”

insisted Pearl, evidently still clinging to the hope that she might direct
events without seeming to do so.

“If it were genuinely by chance, yes.”

Pearl muttered something about her mother having said that chances like
that didn’t happen. But Meg thought it wiser to pretend not to have heard
anything, and when they came out of the castle once more, she said, “Sight-
seeing is tiring work, Pearl. You know what I think you and I should do?
We’ll take a local bus to the Haymarket and catch our Purworth bus back,
before rush hour. That will get us home in time for tea.”

“Let’s walk part of the way to the Haymarket,” Pearl countered quickly.

“But darling, aren’t you tired? I know I am.”

“I’m not a bit tired,” Pearl protested. “Let’s walk a little way, Meg,
please.”

Although she was certain that she was going to be led past Leigh
Sontigan’s office once more, Meg yielded, again on the principle that it was
better to take a small risk than to make an unnecessary fuss.

So they walked slowly along the crowded pavements, waiting from time
to time to cross busy intersections, as the traffic lights flashed from green
to red and back again. They talked little now, but their hands were linked,
and Meg felt that the little girl trusted her and was glad of her company.

It was just as they paused once more before crossing the street that the
disaster happened, with a suddenness that left Meg numb and helpless. She
had just said, “Wait, dear,” as the light changed when she felt Pearl snatch
her hand away.
 “There he is!” cried Pearl triumphantly, and, without a second’s
hesitation, she dashed out into the street.

“Pearl—no!” cried Meg, as brakes squealed and horns blared.

For a second it seemed as though the child would run straight under the
wheels of an advancing bus. But she shot past with inches to spare, and had
almost reached the other side when a small car caught her with a glancing
blow and threw her on to the pavement, almost at the feet of Leigh
Sontigan.

Even from where she stood, on the other side of the stream of traffic, Meg
could see the color wiped from that vivid face as he stopped and snatched
the child from the ground. Then she too was threading her way through the
traffic, oblivious to shouts and warnings. A second later she stood beside
him, as Pearl lay, gasping in his arms, one arm hanging limp from the
shoulder.

“Are you crazy?” He turned on Meg in his terror and fury. “How could
you let such a thing happen? You’re supposed to be in charge of her, aren’t
you?”

“It was my fault.” Pearl gave a contrite sniff. Meg could find no words at
all. She stood there, dumb from the unspeakable, agonizing relief of
discovering that Pearl was not dead after all.
 If Leigh Sontigan’s words were unjust, she simply did not care. For the
first time, someone had registered intense, almost passionate concern for
Pearl. And, of all people, it was the abrupt, casual, unlikeable brother of the
stepmother she detested.
 CHAPTER THREE
Within a few minutes of Pearl’s accident, a crowd had gathered, and a
policeman shouldered his way through to inquire, “Is the bairn hurt?”

“I think her arm’s broken,” Meg explained huskily.

“I couldn’t avoid her!” the distressed driver broke in eagerly. “She ran
right in front of me.”

“My car’s just around the corner.” Leigh Sontigan spoke almost
simultaneously with the other two. “I’ll take her to the hospital.”

“The ambulance is on its way. Are you the bairn’s parents?” He looked
from Leigh to Meg.

“I’m a friend of her mother.” Leigh spoke curtly, but with an air of
responsibility not lost on the policeman. “The child was in this lady’s
charge when the accident happened.”

“You should have kept a closer watch on her, ma’am.”

“It wasn’t Meg’s fault at all,” piped up the victim, with a display of
energy which gave everyone some relief. “I just rushed across the road
without thinking.”
 “Lassie, you should never do that.” The policeman shook his head at her
and smiled. “Well, we’ll soon have you in hospital and they’ll fix you up.
Here comes the ambulance.”

And sure enough, an urgent siren announced that an ambulance had

arrived, with almost miraculous speed.

The interested spectators reluctantly allowed themselves to be pushed

aside, the ambulance hacked up to the pavement, and a couple of kindly
and efficient men descended.

“Shall we take the little girl?” one asked.

But Pearl clutched Leigh with her unhurt hand and he said, “No, I’ll lift
her in.”

“Meg must come too,” Pearl insisted eagerly.

“Yes, of course,” Leigh said. But he did not even glance Meg’s way as he
lifted Pearl into the ambulance and laid her on the stretcher.

Meg, aware now that she was shaking, climbed in after him. Then, when
the ambulance attendants had rapidly satisfied themselves that the little girl
needed no immediate attention, they both got back in front. The policeman
looked in and said, “I’ll get the details at the hospital,” the door was
slammed, and they drove away from the scene of the accident.
 For a moment, in the sudden intimacy of the confined space, Meg felt
unable to summon any words. Then she saw that Pearl was blinking back
tears with some difficulty and, leaning forward, she asked tenderly, “How
are you feeling, darling?”

“It hurts a bit.” Pearl spoke with courageous understatement.

“I expect it does. But they’ll soon make you feel better at the hospital.”

“Are you angry with me?”

“No, certainly not! You shouldn’t have run across the road without
looking. But we all do silly things without thinking sometimes. And you’ve
certainly been punished.”

“I couldn’t let Leigh go without speaking to him,” Pearl explained, with a

sigh.

“No?” said Meg. This time it was she who did not glance at him, and the
faint query in her voice suggested that she accepted, though did not
understand, the explanation for Pearl’s impulse.

At the hospital, Meg and Leigh Sontigan were told to wait, while Pearl
was whisked away into the emergency department.
 Other anxious people were waiting around, but Meg felt as though there
were only one person there besides herself: the tall, restless, overbearing
man who had told her she should have taken better care of Pearl.

She knew the remark was unjust, and yet she could not escape a vague,
guilty feeling that she should have managed to prevent this accident. And
on a more immediately practical plane, she wondered unhappily what
Pearl’s mother would have to say about it. For, as casually as Felicity might
act toward her daughter, she probably believed herself to be a devoted
mother and would have no patience for anyone who let Pearl come to any
real harm.

Presently the policeman appeared again, and Meg had to give him further
details.

“Will you be making any charge against the driver of the car?” he
inquired, writing busily.

“Oh no, I don’t think so. It simply wasn’t his fault,” Meg admitted. “She
ran across, against the lights, and the car couldn’t stop in time.”

“In your opinion, was the car traveling at an unreasonable speed?”

“I don’t ... know.” Meg pushed back her hair from a damp forehead and,
without even knowing it, glanced round distractedly. “I couldn’t see the car.
It was hidden by the bus, so far as I was concerned.”
 “It was traveling at a perfectly reasonable pace,” Leigh said beside her,
and she was vaguely thankful for support, even from him. “The driver did
the best he could, but there was no chance of avoiding her. We’re lucky that
he struck her only a glancing blow.”

“Very good, sir.” The policeman turned back to Meg. “You say the little
girl lives with her mother in Purworth. Would you like us to telephone the
news of the accident or—”

“Oh no!” Meg could not imagine what Cecile would say to her if she
allowed Felicity to have such a shock without preparation. “As soon as I
know how Pearl is, I’ll either take her home, if I’m allowed to, or ... or go
back and explain to her mother myself.”

At this point, a nurse appeared and, under the impression that Meg was
Pearl’s mother, she said, “Your little girl isn’t very seriously hurt, I’m glad
to say. She’s fractured her left arm and got one or two nasty bruises, but
there doesn’t seem to be anything else wrong. However, we’d like to keep
her in for the night, just in case of shock. I think you’ll be able to take her
home tomorrow. Would you like to come and see her now?”

“Yes, please.” Meg spoke in a whisper, suddenly almost voiceless from

relief and desire to burst into tears.

The nurse patted her arm kindly and asked, “Is this your husband?”
 “Oh no!” Meg rejected the suggestion with such emphasis that Leigh’s
eyebrows went up quizzically, and for the first time since the accident she
saw a hint of that mocking little smile.

“I’m just a friend,” he explained gravely to the nurse. And then, to Meg,
“Have you got a car here in town?”

“Why, no. No, we came by bus. I’ll go home the same way.”

“Go and see Pearl now,” he said, with an air of taking over. “I’ll fetch my
car and be back here in a quarter of an hour to take you to Purworth.”

“You don’t need—” she began. But he had already turned to go and either
did not hear or chose to ignore her protest.

She found Pearl sitting up in bed, her face pale and her arm in a sling, but
with an air of cheerful expectancy that was most reassuring.

“Where’s Leigh?” she demanded immediately.

“He’s gone to get his car, so that he can drive me home.”

“ Oh, I’m glad! Now he’ll explain to Mommy and she won’t be able to
blame you.” Pearl declared artlessly. “How kind of him. But then he is
kind, isn’t he?”
 Agreement stuck in Meg’s throat. But in front of Pearl’s earnest gaze it
was impossible to add any qualification, so she said that Leigh was indeed
kind and asked Pearl how she was feeling.

“Not too bad. And anyway, Nurse says I’m lucky to be alive.” Pearl
smiled roguishly at the nurse, with whom she was evidently already on
excellent terms.

“Well, darling, it certainly ended better than we could have hoped.” Meg
ruffled the child’s hair tenderly. “All you have to do now is keep quiet and
get well. I don’t think you’ll have to stay long in the hospital—” she
guessed she had better not be more specific than that, in case of
disappointment “—and of course I’ll come and see you tomorrow.”

“Will Leigh come too?” Pearl wanted to know.

“I can’t answer for him, my dear. I expect he’s a very busy person.”

“Yes, he’s very busy.” Pearl seemed rather proud of him on this account.
“But he’ll probably come if he can. Please ask him to come, Meg.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Meg promised. And she decided then and there
that one thing she was going to make clear with her feckless employer in
future was what consistent line she was to take with regard to Pearl and
Leigh Sontigan.
 She stayed only a few minutes, as it was obvious that Pearl needed rest.
After repeating her promise to return on the morrow, she kissed the little
girl and took her leave. She was relieved to see that, far from being alarmed
by unfamiliar surroundings, Pearl seemed to be welcoming the extra
attention and companionship which her accident had secured for her.

In the driveway in front of the emergency department, Meg found Leigh

Sontigan waiting for her, in what she could not help thinking was an
appropriate black Jaguar. Like its owner, it was big and dark, with a
powerful elegance about it. And as she slipped into the seat beside Leigh,
she could not deny that, at the moment, physical comfort outweighed any
question of antagonism.

Apart from a brief query as to how she had found Pearl, he said little until
they had threaded their way through the city traffic and were out on the
Great North Road. Then, to her considerable astonishment, what he said
was, “I’m sorry I blamed you. It wasn’t really your fault, of course.”

“Why, that’s all right.” She spoke a little stiffly, because she could not
immediately accept the abruptly offered olive branch. “I expect you were as
scared as I was, and felt ready to blame anyone.”

He made a slight face, but did not entirely rebut her charge. “I’ve never
felt more frightened in all my life,” was the way he put it. “And I suppose
my reaction was to blame someone. Did you feel like blaming me?”
 “Well, hardly. Why should I?”

“I was the nearest person, as far as you were concerned.”

“I suppose you were.” She gave a small, pale smile. “And now I do
remember thinking, “Why did he have to turn up just at that minute?”

“I was practically at the door of my office.”

“Oh, you don’t need to offer excuses for your presence now.” Her smile
deepened a trifle. “I’m only too glad that you were there. And I’m
extremely grateful for this ride.”

“Well, you certainly weren’t fit to struggle in a bus line up,” he told her
briefly. “I don’t think you know how washed out you looked.”

There is no subtle flattery about the term “washed out,” and Meg felt no
pleasure on having it applied to her. But she supposed he was offering her a
rough form of sympathy, so she swallowed her chagrin and said nothing.

He seemed to think she would probably prefer to remain undisturbed, and

for some time there was no further conversation, Then, as they passed
through Morpeth, he said,

“How did you come to be in charge of Pearl? It’s quite a recent

appointment, isn’t it?”
 “As recent as yesterday,” Meg, told him. And then, since he seemed to be
waiting for more, she gave him a brief outline of the events which had so
unexpectedly put Pearl in her care.

“How like Felicity,” was his sole, dry comment. And she was not quite
sure if he meant that it was like Felicity to leave her child in the charge of
an unsatisfactory nanny, or to pass on the little girl, with equal
irresponsibility, to someone she had only just met.

“I feel I failed badly, since I let this happen to her the very first day,” said
Meg, speaking her unhappy thoughts aloud.

“It was not your fault,” he repeated. And, in an odd way, she felt
comforted by the unequivocal bluntness of his manner, so that for a
moment she glimpsed what it was about him that reassured and attracted
the rather rootless little girl who loved him.

Ten minutes later they arrived in Purworth and, as they got out of the car,
he said curtly, “Leave it to me. I’ll explain.”

Part of her wanted to say coldly that she was able to tackle her own
problem. But the other part of her, frightened and now very tired, was
unashamedly glad that someone was going to take on the task of
explanations.
 He opened the door of the house and walked in as though he had every
right to be there. Although Cecile was in the hall, he brushed past her
lightly.

So much for Cecile’s own capacity for halting him, she thought, and
followed Leigh Sontigan into the drawing room, where they found Felicity
sipping tea and obviously relaxing.

“Why, Leigh!” Her tone was a subtle blend of indignation and pleasurable
curiosity. “What on earth are you doing here?” Then her glance went
beyond him to Meg, and she added, a trifle sharply, “And where is Pearl?”

“That’s why we’re here together.” Leigh Sontigan came straight to the
point. “I brought Meg ... Miss Greenway ... home from Newcastle because
Pearl had an accident. Not a very serious one, but the child has to stay in
hospital overnight.”

“In hospital? Pearl?” Felicity rose to her feet, genuinely moved and
frightened for once, and evidently astonished that such a thing could
happen. “What sort of an accident?”

“She—”

“Why didn’t you take better care of her?” Felicity turned with unexpected
fierceness on Meg.
 “She took every care of the child.” Leigh Sontigan spoke firmly, and in
spite of everything, Meg gave him a dazed and grateful glance. “It was
something no one could have guarded against. Pearl just shot away from
her side and dashed across the street, against the lights.”

“But why should she? She’s a sensible child. What made her do such a
thing?” Felicity spoke resentfully.

“I’m afraid I was on the other side of the road.”

“Did you call her or something?”

“No, of course not. She just saw me ... and came.”

“How ridiculous!”

“Yes, wasn’t it?” he said. But he smiled at her, in a way that showed his
strong, white teeth, and Meg saw her angry glance waver uncertainly.

“Are you suggesting that I would ever have dashed impulsively to your
side?” She tossed her beautiful golden head.

“No, my sweet, I don’t think you’d ever have run into danger for anyone.
But that’s not the point. I just want you to know that the whole thing was an
accident, that no amount of extra care could have prevented it, and that
Miss Greenway, who has had a pretty bad shock, could do with some
sympathy rather than censure.”

“I’m sorry.” Felicity turned to Meg with endearing contrition. “I just was
frightened and—”

“Miss Manners, please, I more than understand, and, in spite of

everything, I do blame myself. As Mr. Sontigan says, I know I couldn’t
have prevented the accident really, but I still feel that it shouldn’t have
happened. At least she hasn’t any serious injury. But she has a broken arm,
poor little thing, and some bruises, and that’s quite enough for a small child
to put up with. I’d have done anything for this not to have happened.”

“Well, don’t blame yourself too much,” Felicity was charming and
gracious again. “Children will do these crazy things, I suppose. Is she very
much upset? Do you think—” she sighed “—that I should go to her?”

“It isn’t really necessary. She’s quite comfortably settled in bed now.
They seemed to think that I ... you ... that someone could probably fetch her
home tomorrow.”

“Oh, well, that’s all right, then.” Felicity was relieved that no action was
called for on her part. “I’m afraid I couldn’t get her tomorrow. We have a
very important scene. If you could, Miss Greenway—”

“Why, of course!”
 “And perhaps, Leigh, you could pick them both up in your car?” Already
she was rearranging everyone else’s plans to suit herself. But Leigh seemed
not to mind being used in this way.

“If you want,” he said. “But I thought I wasn’t accepted in this house and
that, in particular, I wasn’t supposed to see Pearl.”

“Oh ... well—” Felicity gave a ghost of her famous smile “—if you’ve
played knight errant to my daughter, what am I to do? You can come, of
course. Only don’t think that alters things, Leigh.”

“What things?” he asked bluntly.

“You know perfectly well.” Her glance slid past Meg, as though to say
she could hardly be candid in front of a third party. Taking the hint, Meg
withdrew.

He could not have stayed with Felicity very long, however. Because, after
she had gone to the kitchen to explain to the anxious and curious Cecile
what had happened, she met him again on her way back through the hall.

He seemed in good humor, and he gave her that gay, flashing smile, as he
said, “All uncomfortable explanations over. You’d better go rest a bit.”

She supposed that was another way of saying she looked washed out
again. So her tone was a trifle cool although she felt genuinely grateful, as
she said, “Thank you very much for your support.”

“You’re welcome,” he told her. “And it looks as though I was right about
our meeting again, doesn’t it?”

“Meeting again?”

“Yes. Don’t you remember? You told me only yesterday in the coolest
tone possible that we were unlikely to meet again. And I don’t think you
were very pleased with me when I assured you that you hadn’t seen the last
of me.”

He stood smiling down at her, good-humored but altogether too sure of

himself, she thought.

“You’re mistaken,” she said, in much the same tone she must have used
yesterday. “I was quite indifferent about it.”

“Oh, that’s an unkind cut,” he declared, though he still looked amused.

“You’re quite determined not to like me, my severe little cousin ... or
whatever you are ... aren’t you?”

“I’m certainly not your cousin,” she assured him with emphasis.

“No? Well, the relationship is there, even if it’s difficult to work out,” he
asserted.
 “If you insist upon it, it’s not all that difficult to work out,” she assured
him coolly. “You’re a sort of uncle by marriage.”

She turned and went upstairs, leaving him looking after her a little as
though she had slapped his face. All the same, as she turned the bend in the
stairs and, irresistibly, glanced downwards, he grinned up at her, apparently
more amused than chagrined and called, “I’ll see you at the hospital about
three ... niece.”

Then he left and Meg dragged herself to her room, suddenly exhausted.
By her own reckoning she was tough enough to cope with most things, but
the trip to Newcastle had taken toll of her nervous energy in a way that left
her feeling limp.

However, after a hot bath and an hour of relaxation in her pleasant room,
she felt all right again, and went downstairs to have dinner with Felicity.

To her pleasure, she discovered that Dick Manners had called in on his
way back from Edinburgh. She was still rather vague about his position in
the scheme of things, but from the way he and his sister were talking when
she came in she gathered that he had something to do with the publicity
side of Felicity’s career.

He got up immediately on seeing Meg and came forward to express the

most genuine sympathy and anxiety about his niece’s accident. With
characteristic good nature, he extended the sympathy to include Meg
herself, with no suggestion whatever that she might have failed in her
duties.

“I’m afraid it must have been a great shock to you,” he said kindly. “And
in a way—” his glance traveled reflectively over his sister “—it was a good
thing that Leigh was there.”

“It was a very good thing, from my point of view,” Meg conceded. “He
handled everything with great authority and—”

“Yes, he would!” Dick’s handsome eyes sparkled amusedly. “He’s a great

one at handling things with authority. But I still don’t see how Pearl came
to do anything as silly as rush across the road against oncoming traffic.”

“I told you. Leigh was on the other side of the road,” said his sister
impatiently.

“Even so—”

“I think—” Meg looked diffidently from one to the other, but she spoke
with firmness “—you mustn’t underestimate Pearl’s affection for ... for Mr.
Sontigan. Children do have these violent likes or dislikes for people and
she is very fond of him. I don’t know why, but—”

“Oh, don’t you?” Felicity smiled in that lovely reflective way which was
a joy to cameramen. “Don’t you find him at all attractive, Miss
Greenway?”

Meg looked startled. “I hadn’t thought about him from a personal point of
view, but—”

“Hadn’t you? Most women do, I believe.”

“I meant—” Meg firmly brought the conversation back to the issue “—

that I don’t know enough about Pearl’s background to say just why she
regards Mr. Sontigan as such an important part of her life. But she was
extremely upset when she was told she was not to see any more of him.”

“Who told her that?” inquired Felicity interestedly.

“I understand, Miss Manners, that you did,” said Meg patiently. “When I
first met her yesterday—” it seemed impossible that all these maddening
but fascinating people had come into her life only yesterday! “—she spoke
wistfully about him, and said you had told her he had gone away.”

“Oh well, yes. I suppose I did. But that was how it seemed to me then.
Things have changed,” Felicity explained airily.

“Things don’t change quite so easily for a child, Miss Manners.” Meg
said dryly.
 “I wouldn’t say that things changed easily for me,” said Felicity, and
lapsed into a mental review of her own reactions.

“I’m sure they didn’t.” Determinedly, Meg kept her temper and her polite
air. “And please don’t think I’m so impertinent as to concern myself with
your personal affairs. But if I’m to look after Pearl in any worthwhile sense
I must have a clear ruling on this matter which means so much to her. Do
you want me to play down her friendship with Mr. Sontigan or can they
both go on enjoying each other’s company, in the uninhibited way they
seem to do?”

“You know, that’s the word for Leigh!” Felicity turned admiringly to her
brother. “Miss Greenway’s hit it exactly. He’s uninhibited. That’s what
makes him both attractive and infuriating at the same time. Don’t you think
so?”

“I wouldn’t know.” Dick shifted himself comfortably in his chair and

smiled lazily. “I’m neither attracted nor infuriated by Leigh. But then I’m
not a woman. In any case, you haven’t answered Miss Greenway’s
question.”

“What was that?” Felicity turned to Meg and smiled in a friendly way.

“Is Pearl to be allowed to continue an unrestricted friendship with Leigh

or not?” Dick repeated patiently.
 “Oh, I think so.” Felicity was obviously a little tired of the subject by
now. “After all, he is going to fetch her from hospital tomorrow. And really
he’s rather exciting to have about. Particularly if one isn’t going to marry
him. Such a relief! Shall we have dinner now?”

Later, when Felicity had gone up to bed and Dick was leaving, he spoke
to Meg alone, in a more reassuring and responsible way than she expected.

“Don’t worry too much about Pearl and Leigh,” he said kindly. “The
situation will probably solve itself. Felicity has now got over the crisis of
breaking her engagement, and more or less regards Leigh as part of the
general landscape. Whether or not Leigh will accept this passive role, of
course, remains to be seen,” he added, rubbing his chin reflectively.

“Yes, it does, doesn’t it?” Meg simply could not imagine Leigh Sontigan
as part of anyone’s background.

Dick Manner laughed.

“You’re not used to living with Felicity yet,” he told her cheerfully. “If
one can see a couple of weeks ahead, one feels one is on a rest cure. But
I’m glad Pearl has you to cushion existence for her. You’re probably the
best thing that’s happened to the child for a long time.”

With this final reassurance he left, leaving Meg to go to bed cheered by

the thought that Pearl’s uncle could still say this to her after all that had
happened that day.

He must be a sensitive and understanding person, after all, she thought.

Not many people would have made a point of putting that into words at just
this moment. I like Dick Manners. But then I like the whole family. Even
Felicity. When I’m not feeling ready to wring her neck.

The following morning seemed empty without Pearl chattering at her

side. As usual, Felicity left early, attended by the devoted Cecile, and Meg
was left to her own devices.

Presently Mrs. Parker put in an appearance, ready to engage on what she

called “a good clean-down,” to make up for the fact that her daughter’s
illness had kept her away for a day or two.

Since there was nothing for her to do in the house, Meg took a basket and
went out to do some general household shopping. For although Felicity had
said that Cecile would attend to such matters, Cecile had been grateful
earlier that morning when Meg had offered to buy anything necessary.

It was a pleasant morning, cool, but with the sun shining brightly and only
a few fleecy clouds chasing each other across a pale blue sky. As Meg
walked along the country road which led from the house to the village, she
hummed happily to herself.
 When she arrived at the straggling line of shops which made up the main
street of the village, she was astonished to find that a number of people
seemed to know about Pearl’s accident.

One or two stopped her and inquired kindly about the little girl. Although
few had the details right—Pearl’s injuries varying from a sprained ankle to
more or less fatal head injuries—Meg found their interest sympathetic.

She responded gratefully, endeavored to correct any errors in information,

and undertook to convey to Pearl all the kind messages she was given.

“One doesn’t know what attitude to take toward the children of well-
known people,” said Mrs. Cooper. “I thought the little girl looked lonely
and aimless sometimes, and I’m sure my four would be very glad to have
her play with them. But one doesn’t want to be pushy.”

“I think it would be lovely for Pearl to see other children,” Meg replied
warmly. “And I’ll certainly try to arrange it. Thank you very much.”

As she turned homeward she had the comfortable feeling that life could
once more encompass what she called “nice, normal people,” as well as the
fascinating, but somewhat wearing figures who seemed to people her
existence at the moment.

A pleasant path brought her to the back of the house, and as she came into
the kitchen Mrs. Parker stopped her energetic scrubbing to observe, “Lady
and gentleman to see you.”

“To see me?” Meg looked mystified. “But I don’t know any ... to see Miss
Manners, surely?”

“No, to see you. Miss Greenway they asked for. That’s you, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” said Meg. And suddenly, at the thought that they might bring bad
news of Pearl, her heart gave a lurch. “Oh, I hope—”

She dropped her basket on the kitchen table and ran to the front of the
house.

The sound of voices came from the drawing room, and she pushed open
the door quickly and walked in.

Then she stopped dead. Of the two people in the room, one was dearly
familiar and the other much less so. It was her father who got up and came
forward to embrace her, amused and delighted by her astonishment. And
beyond him, Meg saw Claire—smiling, it was true, but coldly, and with an
air of sharpened interest which suggested that she saw Meg in a different,
but still less endearing light.
 CHAPTER FOUR

“Why, father, how wonderful!” Meg hugged and kissed her father in
astonishment and joy. “How on earth did this happen? I thought you were
miles away.”

“We were for the early part of our honeymoon. But, as you know, we
decided just to drive wherever our fancy took us, and we followed the good
weather north. Then Claire suggested we drop in on her brother in
Newcastle, as I’d never met him. When we saw him last night, he told us,
to our astonishment, that you were here and that he knew you quite well.”

“I could hardly believe it.” Claire took up the tale, but she glanced at Meg
with curiosity rather than friendliness, and it was obvious that the
discovery had not especially pleased her. “I had no idea that you and, Leigh
had even met.”

“We hadn’t until a few days ago.” Meg made herself greet Claire with
cordiality. “I expect he explained what happened.”

“Not in much detail. Something to do with you and Felicity Manners’

child, wasn’t it? He spoke as though he knew you really well.”
 “Well, that was a slight exaggeration,” replied Meg lightly. And, turning
back to her father, she asked eagerly how long they were staying.

“In the district? Several days, I think, though we may move around a bit. I
understand I might find some good fishing along the Coquet or the
Wansbeck, and Claire will be glad to see her brother, I’m sure.”

“Yes, indeed. I think I’ve had my eye off him too long.” Claire laughed as
she said that. But something in her manner suggested to Meg that there was
a slight barb in her little joke.

Since she had no way of telling how much Claire was in her brother’s
confidence, Meg kept her own counsel about Leigh’s affairs. Presently her
father suggested that she have lunch with them at a country hotel less than
ten miles away which was, Claire had assured him, famous for its salmon
lunches.

“I’d love to! But I must be in Newcastle before three o’clock,” Meg
explained.

“Why?” inquired Claire flatly.

“Because I’ve undertaken to collect Pearl from hospital if she’s well

enough to travel.”
 “I don’t expect half an hour one way or another would matter,” Claire
shrugged.

“Yes. I’m afraid it would. L ... your brother promised to drive Pearl and
me home to Purworth. He said he would be at the hospital about three. I
don’t think I should keep him waiting. I’m sure he’s a busy person.”

“Leigh said he would collect you?” There was distaste as well as

astonishment in Claire’s tone.

But Meg’s father laughed and said, “Using the family connections to the
best advantage? Quite right too, in an inaccessible place like this!”

“It wasn’t that at all!” Meg spoke quickly and emphatically. “Leigh—”
she simply could not go on saying “your brother,” however remote and
annoyed Claire might look “—is a good friend of Pearl’s mother. It was she
who made the arrangement yesterday evening.”

“Oh, Leigh was here yesterday evening?” Claire seized on that quickly.

“Yes, he was.”

“Just visiting?”

“No. He brought me home from Newcastle, after Pearl’s accident. The

whole thing was rather upsetting, and I must admit I wasn’t anxious to wait
for a bus. Besides, as I said, he knows Pearl’s mother well. I think he felt
he could explain better than I could.”

“I see.” Claire’s tone was reflective.

But at this point her husband intervened with goodhumored insistence, to

point out that if they were all going to lunch together, it was time they
started.

“The place we’re thinking of is roughly in the direction of Newcastle, so

you won’t be wasting time. And afterwards we’ll take you to the hospital,”
he told Meg. “Claire and I are staying in Newcastle anyway for the
moment.”

Claire also made a display of wanting Meg to come to lunch with them,
so Meg went out into the kitchen to explain to Mrs. Parker.

“Your dad, you say? He’s a nice-looking man. A gentleman,” Mrs. Parker
observed approvingly. “She’s never your mam, surely?”

“Oh, no! She’s my stepmother.”

“I thought she must be. With that hat,” added Mrs. Parker somewhat
enigmatically.
 “What’s wrong with her hat?” inquired Meg curiously. She freely
admitted to herself that Claire’s hat could hardly have been more
becoming.

“I’ve never seen one like it before.” Mrs. Parker pressed her lips together
and shook her head.

“Well, I don’t know that I have either.” Meg was amused. “But it’s very
smart, don’t you think?”

“Oh, yes. It’s smart. It’s a ‘look at me, do’ sort of hat.” Mrs. Parker
explained. And with another shake of her head she went back to her work.

Meg was still laughing as she left the kitchen. But she found herself
wishing that the rest of her luggage, for which she had sent, would have
arrived. It was difficult living in what one had been able to get into a
knapsack, particularly if one were to go out to lunch in Claire’s company.

However, it was obvious that to her father she could not have looked
more attractive. He gave her an affectionate little squeeze as they went out
to the car, and he insisted that she share the wide front seat with him and
Claire.

The proximity to Claire was a little embarrassing. But it was lovely to

feel her father’s affection for her undiminished, particularly as he seemed
completely unaware of any lack of sympathy between his young wife and
his daughter.

Nice men are obtuse, thought Meg indulgently. But so long as she’s
decent to him and makes him happy, I really don’t care how she feels about
me.

Largely owing to Dr. Greenway’s pride in his two companions, the lunch
was extremely pleasant and he saw to it that they got away again in good
time. Evidently he did not intend this to be the last he saw of his daughter.

“What sort of hours are you working?” he wanted to know, as they

headed for Newcastle once more. “Is this job of yours an unofficial one or
a completely straightforward engagement?”

“In most ways, it could hardly be more unofficial,” Meg assured him with
a laugh. “But I’m definitely in charge of Pearl, and to that extent, I suppose
my hours are 24 out of 24.”

“But surely you can get away sometimes in the evening?” her father
protested.

“Oh, I expect so. Her mother doesn’t seem to go out much in the
evenings, at any rate, while she’s working so hard on this film. And then,
of course, there’s the French maid, Cecile. If I did want to go out one
evening—”
 “ We’ll want to get together more than one evening, if possible,” Dr.
Greenway declared. “Perhaps we might make a foursome of and include
Leigh, eh Claire?”

Claire said that Leigh made his own social arrangements, to which her
husband said, “Of course, of course. But families should get together
sometimes.”

Neither of the girls questioned this sentiment, but neither of them

expressed enthusiasm for its application in their own case.

But when they reached the hospital, telephone numbers were exchanged
and there was a general agreement that they would meet again very soon.
Inexpressibly happy to have found that the bond between herself and her
father seemed to be as strong as ever, Meg bade them goodbye and went
into the hospital.

Something of her happiness must have lingered with her and given her
eyes a special sparkle, for as soon as Pearl saw her she exclaimed,

“How pretty you look! Has something nice happened?”

“Yes, it has, as a matter of fact.” Meg laughed and kissed Pearl.

“Apart from my coming home, do you mean?”

 “Are you coming home?”

“Yes, the nurse just came in to tell me so.”

“Oh, then everything is perfect!” Meg declared. “And my news is that my

father came to see me today, and will be staying in this part of the country
for a little while.”

“Did she come too?” inquired Pearl delicately.

“My stepmother, you mean? Yes, of course. They’re still on their

honeymoon.”

“Oh. Is she any nicer?”

Immediately Meg found herself regretting those candid comments she

had made when the little girl had first inquired about her circumstances.

“Yes, yes, certainly. Everything’s all right now,” Meg declared hastily.

“I’m so glad,” said Pearl. And then Leigh Sontigan arrived to collect
them.

His greeting to Pearl contained just the right degree of casual affection,
Meg had to admit to herself. Nothing in the least emotional about it, but
there was no doubting his pleasure in seeing her.
 “Well, Pearl of great price—” he ruffled her hair “—are you ready?”

“Yes. I can go whenever I like,” Pearl declared. “And ... isn’t it nice? ...
Meg’s had a visit from her father, and she’s very happy about it, aren’t you,
Meg? And even her horrid stepmother was kind.”

“You don’t say!” Leigh looked amused, while Meg found herself blushing
hotly.

“When I first met Meg,” began Pearl, “she told me—”

“Darling, I don’t think Mr. Sontigan wants to hear about me and my

family,” Meg interrupted hastily.

“Of course he does.” Leigh shot her a wicked smile. “Particularly as it

happens to be my family too. The horrid stepmother is my sister, Pearl.”

“But—” Pearl’s pretty mouth fell open “—she can’t be, if she’s horrid.”

“Thank you, my child, for the charming implication.” He laughingly

kissed the tip of her ear. “But perhaps she can’t be horrid, after all, if she’s
my sister.”

“Well—” Pearl looked doubtfully at Meg.

 “Never mind, love.” Meg had recovered herself. “Relations by marriage
don’t always have to like each other devotedly.” She glanced coolly at
Leigh, as though to emphasize the particular application of this statement.

“Don’t you think so?” He rubbed his chin reflectively.

“Certainly not! The important thing is simply to be pleasant and civilized

to each other. And as I told you, Pearl—” she turned to the little girl again
“—everything went very well when I saw my father and Claire this
morning. So I think we can consider the subject satisfactorily disposed of.”

“Admirably put,” Leigh said lightly. “Are you both ready to go?”

They were both ready to go. After settling one or two details in
connection with Pearl’s discharge from the hospital, they all went out to
Leigh’s car.

“I think we’ll give you the back seat to yourself,” Leigh told Pearl. “I’ve
brought plenty of cushions, so we can fix you up comfortably. Then Meg
—” Meg’s eyebrows rose “—can sit in front with me. How’s that?”

Pearl thought it was splendid, so Meg had no chance to suggest any other
arrangement.

At first Pearl was very talkative, but after a while the motion of the car
made her sleepy. Interjections from the back seat grew less and less
frequent and finally ceased altogether. Glancing back, Meg saw that her
eyes were closed.

“She’s asleep,” Meg said softly.

“I thought she’d probably go off.” Leigh smiled. “I suspect she had a

pretty broken night, in a strange bed and with her arm hurting. The less she
excites herself now, the better.”

His tone was so genuinely concerned that Meg was just about to say
something congratulatory when, on an entirely different note, he observed,
“So you don’t like my sister any more than you like me?”

“I haven’t said ... Really, do we have to discuss this?” she exclaimed

impatiently.

“Well, it’s a topic that concerns us both,” he pointed out, though good-
humoredly.

“It’s an embarrassing one for me, as you must know,” she retorted. “Of
course I wouldn’t have said anything to Pearl, in the beginning, if I’d had
the slightest idea she would know the people concerned. She was rather
ghoulishly interested to hear I had a stepmother, and wanted to know if I
liked her.”

“And you said you didn’t?”

 “Mr. Sontigan,” Meg spoke dryly, “Claire doesn’t very much like me.
She’s perfectly entitled to feel that way, and I might say it doesn’t affect me
in the least, so long as she is fond of my father and makes him happy. It’s
obvious that she does make him happy, and that’s all that concerns me. I
don’t have to like her and she doesn’t have to like me. But I can see no
profit in discussing the fact or emphasizing the gap between us.”

“All right.” He turned his head for a moment, to give her that quick,
flashing smile which always slightly disturbed her. “But as we’re likely to
see a lot of each other now—”

“What makes you think that?” she inquired quickly.

“Blind intuition,” he told her, still with that smile. And, as she did not
choose to discuss this absurd statement, they drove the rest of the way in
silence.

When they reached home, Meg had to rouse her little charge, who
whimpered rather fretfully and said that her arm hurt.

“Never mind, sweetheart. Let’s get you into the house, and we’ll all have
tea. That will make you feel better,” Leigh assured her.

Mrs. Parker’s exclamations of sympathy and woe did much to restore

Pearl, and as soon as tea was produced, she cheered up completely.
 They had hardly finished when Felicity and Cecile returned. Felicity gave
a pretty exhibition of motherly concern over the child, and in the
expansiveness of the moment kissed Leigh too, presumably for his part in
conveying Pearl safely back home. He took it with a faintly cynical smile.
But Pearl opened her eyes very wide and asked with artless candor,

“Is everything all right again?”

“How do you mean ... everything, darling?” Her mother patted her head.
“It’s lovely to have you home, if that’s what you mean, and of course no
one is going to scold you for running out into the traffic now.”

“No. I didn’t mean that.” Pearl dismissed her own affairs airily. “I mean
did you kiss Leigh because we’re all friends again?”

For a moment even Felicity looked slightly nonplussed. Then she laughed
and said, “You quaint child! I suppose that describes the situation. We’re
friends again. Note the exact word, Leigh.” And she turned to him, with a
slight but significant smile.

“I note it. In the strict sense of having observed that you used the word,”
he replied dryly. “No more.”

“What does that mean?” She tossed her head.

“Whatever you like to make of it,” he retorted. “I must be going now.”

 He kissed Pearl and bade Felicity a casual goodbye. Then, as he came up
to Meg, he paused a moment and said, “I don’t know what arrangements
your father and my sister are making, but I shall see you soon.”

“Perhaps.” Meg was deliberately noncommittal.

Then he went away, and Felicity asked with frank curiosity, “What did
Leigh mean by that? He seems full of cryptic remarks this afternoon.”

Meg explained briefly about the visit of her father and Claire, and Felicity
said vaguely, “How lovely.”

But as she dismissed the matter from her mind in favor of paying some
real attention to Pearl at last, Meg very easily forgave her.

She could not decide whether Felicity really had some time to spare from
her work for once or whether she had been genuinely shaken by Pearl’s
accident. Whatever the reason, she devoted a lot of time to her little girl
that evening. And so charming was she about it that, in spite of all previous
demonstrations to the contrary, Meg actually found herself thinking that
perhaps Felicity was a devoted mother after all.

She even went upstairs to say goodnight to Pearl, and when Meg went out
into the garden to collect the chairs, since it looked as though it might rain
later, she heard Pearl’s delighted laughter floating from the window of her
bedroom.
 While Meg was out there, Dick arrived and, with casual efficiency,
relieved her of her task.

“Let me take those.” He expertly folded and stacked two or three chairs
and carried them toward the garden shed, while she followed with an
assortment of cushions.

“So you got Pearl home all right?” he said, when he had fitted everything
in.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I dropped in at Leigh’s place for a drink, and he’d just got back. By the
way, I met your father there.”

“Did you?” She smiled and looked pleased.

“And your stepmother, of course.”

“Oh, Claire. Hadn’t you met her before?”

“No. I gather she lived in the south, even before she married your father.
And in any case, we haven’t known Leigh all that long, you know.”

“No?”

“About three or four months.”

 “I see.”

“In fact—” he glanced thoughtfully at Meg as they went into the house
once more “—I don’t think she knows anything about Felicity’s
engagement.”

There was a slight question in his tone, so that Meg said, with dry
reassurance, “She certainly doesn’t know about it through me.”

“Tactful girl.” Dick smiled and patted her arm. “I don’t think he’d been
very communicative either. Which is just as well, considering the way
things turned out. Since the whole business is over now, the less said about
it the better.”

“I’m sure,” agreed Meg, resisting a desire to say that Leigh’s affairs of the
heart had no interest for her in any case.

Felicity came downstairs just as Dick was pouring drinks. As he brought

her a glass of her favorite sherry, he said, “You’re engaged for next
Tuesday evening. Don’t make any other dates that night.”

“I won’t.” She sipped her sherry absently. “Is it something nice?”

“Oh, nice enough. It’s good publicity. You’re going to the Northern
Charities Ball in Newcastle. Miss Greenway’s coming too.”
 “Am I?” Meg looked astonished. “How do you know I am?”

“Because I’ve arranged it all.” Dick smiled at her, in a winning way

which made him look like his sister. “Quite a family party of us. I’ve roped
in your father and stepmother. And Leigh, of course,” he added as an
afterthought.

“But I’ve nothing suitable to wear!” Meg explained. “And anyway, what
about Pearl?”

“Cecile will look after Pearl. And of course you can get hold of
something to wear. Women always can. Don’t you like parties?”

“In some circumstances, yes, of course. But honestly, I haven’t anything

for a really elegant occasion, even if the things I’ve sent for arrive in time.
I didn’t anticipate anything of this sort and—”

“That’s not a major problem,” put in Felicity, with a smile. “I can lend
you whatever you want.”

“But, Miss Manners, I ... how terribly kind of you ... I don’t know that I
can possibly—”

“We’re near enough the same build.” Felicity measured her with a
considering glance. “And Cecile can make any minor alterations. There’s
no need to look so dazed.” She gave a good-humored little laugh. “A large
wardrobe is part of my stock-in-trade, and it’s easy enough for me to fix
you up. It would be rather fun,” she added. “You’re quite good-looking,
really.”

The “really” was her inoffensive way of saying that she didn’t think Meg
had made the most of herself up to now. Or so Meg judged. As it was not
humanly possible not to be slightly piqued by the implication, the
temptation to accept immediately became irresistible.

“Miss Manners, if you really mean it—”

“Of course I do. And I wish you’d call me Felicity. It’s so difficult to
relax when someone calls me Miss Manners. I feel I’m still on the set.”

“Very well, then,” Meg said shyly. “And will you please call me Meg?
I’m terribly thrilled at the thought of wearing a movie star’s dress.
Particularly in front of Claire,” she added, half to herself.

“Claire?” Felicity raised her eyebrows inquiringly.

“Claire is Meg’s excessively pretty and smart young stepmother, who

probably tends to make any other woman feel dowdy when she’s around,”
explained Dick, with astounding comprehension.

“How did you know?” Meg looked at him and laughed in shamefaced
way.
 “By using that bit of worldly acumen without which I should hardly be
able to make my way in the competitive and back-scratching world to
which I belong,” he assured her with a shrug. “But by the time Felicity has
fitted you out, you’ll stand up to any competition, I’m sure.”

“Yes, indeed!” Felicity seemed quite charmed at the prospect. “After

dinner ... are you staying to dinner, Dick?”

“Most certainly. I want to see the results of the transformation act too.”

“Very well.” His sister laughed. “After dinner, Meg, you and I will go
upstairs and have a look at my wardrobe and see what would suit you.”

“It’s extraordinarily kind of you and—”

“It’s not really. It amuses me, too,” Felicity explained, with engaging
candor. “Then on the night ... Tuesday, did you say, Dick? ... Cecile shall
do your hair, and I’ll make you up. Not that you need much make-up, with
that pretty coloring of yours. But you need your best points brought out.
We all do,” Felicity added generously. “It’s going to be fun!”

Her enjoyment was infectious, and Meg was touched that anyone should
take so much interest in her appearance. There had never been anyone in
her restricted circle to enter so heartily into her personal affairs. Her mother
had died when she was a schoolgirl, and although her father loved her
dearly, his uncritical assumption that she looked nice in anything was not
calculated to make her excited about what she wore.

Claire could have filled the gap, but Claire was not exactly a gap-filler,
particularly where other people’s interests were concerned. The kindly,
amused interest of Felicity and her brother had a heart-warming effect on
Meg that made her excited in a sense she had not experienced before.

So that when, after dinner, Felicity said, “Come upstairs now, and let me
see about you,” Meg accompanied her with alacrity.

Felicity’s bedroom was the largest in the house, and all along one wall
were built-in cupboards. These she flung open with gay abandon, and
disclosed to Meg’s dazzled gaze a bewildering array of dresses, coats and
suits.

“It’s possible—” Felicity turned and studied Meg with frank but curiously
inoffensive attention “—that you could wear something really brilliant and
eye-catching. Do you ever wear scarlet or aquamarine or emerald—
anything like that?”

Meg shook her head. “I thought,” she explained diffidently, “that I was
more the pastel type.”

“Not for the next 30 years,” Felicity assured her firmly. “With your lovely
skin, and that contrast of fair hair and dark eyes, you could be quite
dramatic.”

Meg was not sure she wanted to be “quite dramatic,” so she was relieved
to hear Felicity murmur, “Nothing too sophisticated, or she won’t feel at
ease,” as she ran her hand expertly along the dress rail.

For a moment the hand hovered over a streak of peacock blue which
made Meg catch her breath, then traveled on and came to rest on a dress of
thick ivory brocade.

With a quick turn of her wrist, Felicity lifted the dress out, and as she did
so, Meg saw that the lovely shallow neckline was edged with shimmering,
multi-colored rhinestones. It was, quite certainly, the most beautiful dress
she had ever seen.

“This,” said Felicity with simple finality, “is you.”

“Miss Manners ... Felicity! ... I never wore anything like that in my life!”
gasped Meg.

“There always has to be a first time,” replied Felicity, evidently charmed

to be playing Fairy Godmother to this appreciative Cinderella. “Although
it’s gorgeous, it’s an easy dress to wear. Come, try it on.”

In a daze, Meg slipped out of her conventional dress, and stood there,
shivering slightly, in her slip.
 “Are you cold?” Felicity looked surprised.

“No. Excited,” Meg said, and Felicity laughed as she lifted the wonderful
dress over Meg’s head, settled it lightly on her shoulders and zipped it up.

Then she stood back and exclaimed, “It could have been made for you!
Even more ... it could have been designed for you! Just look at yourself in
the mirror.”

Meg turned slowly and surveyed herself. For a moment or two

astonishment and delight held her absolutely silent. She even held her
breath, because she could hardly believe that the dazzling figure facing her
was really herself. Then she slowly expelled her breath on a long sigh of
enchantment. Her red mouth curved in a smile, the color swept into her
cheeks, her eyes shone, and she said, almost in a whisper, “I can’t believe
it!”

Felicity laughed, in a pleased and satisfied way, and said, “Come and sit
down here at my dressing table. I want to alter your hair a little.”

Meg obeyed, as she would have obeyed almost any instruction Felicity
cared to give her at that moment. Flinging a wrap around her, Felicity
began to comb her hair back from her forehead and away from her
wellshaped ears.
 “Cecile’s better at this than I am,” she explained rapidly. “But this will
give the general idea. Now come down and show Dick.” But, even as she
spoke, her brother knocked on the door and called, “How much longer are
you going to be? I should be going.”

“You can come in,” Felicity told him. And, like an actress taking her cue,
Meg turned instinctively towards the door as Dick Manners entered.

He stopped dead. Then he said slowly, “Turn around and let me see you
from all angles.”

Laughing, and deliciously excited, she turned slowly for his inspection.
As she faced him again, he said, “My dear, you are a beauty. And, what is
doubly intriguing, an unsuspected beauty.” To her surprise and amusement,
he took her hand and kissed it lightly. Then, as he raised his head, he
looked straight at her, and she could not remember that any man had
looked at her quite like that before.

“It’s the dress, of course,” she told herself, as he was bidding his sister
goodnight. But again she felt that strange little shiver of excitement run
through her.

Then Dick was gone, and Felicity was unzipping the wonderful dress and
saying kindly, “I’m so glad it fits you so well. There isn’t a thing to alter.”
 “I simply don’t know how to thank you,” Meg exclaimed. “To lend me a
dress at all would be kind ... but to lend me this ... this incredibly beautiful
thing ... It’s like a dream! I don’t think anyone’s ever been so kind to me
before, and I’ve only known you a few days!”

“I don’t think that has anything to do with it.” Felicity spoke sincerely.
“There are people I’ve known for years, and I wouldn’t lend them a
handkerchief if I could help it.”

Meg laughed. But she lightly touched Felicity’s hand, as she handed back
the dress.

“You can’t explain it away,” she said. “It’s absolutely sweet of you. I only
wish there were something I could do for you in return.”

“Do you? ... really?” Felicity paused, in the act of putting the dress on its
hanger.

“Why, of course.” Meg looked surprised. “If there is anything.”

“There is, as a matter of fact. That’s one reason I want you to look
especially nice on Tuesday.” She paused for a moment, and Meg felt a
small, inexplicable chill. “It isn’t much, really.” Felicity smiled engagingly.
“It’s just that on Tuesday I want to spend most of the evening with
someone I find very interesting, and I’d be glad if you would take Leigh
Sontigan off my hands.”
 CHAPTER FIVE
“Take Leigh Sontigan off your hands?” repeated Meg, and she stared at her
lovely employer in some dismay. “What do you mean?”

“I intend to arrange for my producer to be at this ball. And, as I shall

undoubtedly want to dance and spend most of my evening with him, I’d be
glad to have you ... take Leigh off my hands.” She seemed unable to find
other words to describe what she meant.

“You mean ... act especially nice to him and try to get his attention, so he
won’t notice that you’re spending most of your time with someone else?”

“Yes. That’s it exactly!” Felicity was pleased to have her own intentions
so clearly defined.

“But I don’t know if I can. He isn’t particularly interested in me, for one
thing, and for another—”

“He will be, when he sees you in that dress,” Felicity declared
confidently.

“Not necessarily. A man who is especially interested in one woman

doesn’t switch to another just because she happens to be wearing a
beautiful dress. He’s quite ... devoted to you, isn’t he?”
 “Well, he’s got to get over that,” was the impatient reply. “I don’t want
him any more.” Felicity made this statement with a finality that roused a
reluctant sympathy for Leigh in Meg’s mind. “He’ll just have to find some
distraction elsewhere. And if you’ll undertake to supply that, Meg, it will
make my evening a whole lot easier and more pleasant.”

It was, of course, almost the last thing Meg would have chosen to do. She
had gone to some pains to put off Leigh’s friendly approach and now she
was being asked to reverse her attitude completely. On the other hand, as
Felicity had said, it was not such a big favor to do in return for the loan of
the lovely dress. She looked doubtfully at Felicity.

“If I say I’ll do my best—”

“Oh, thank you! You are a good, co-operative girl,” exclaimed Felicity,
without giving Meg a chance to express any qualifications. “I knew you
would. After all, Leigh’s very pleasant company for an evening. You’ll
probably have a lovely time.”

“I was going to say,” insisted Meg firmly, “that although I’ll do my best, I
can’t guarantee that I can hold his attention. He might get bored with me
and then—”

“He won’t get bored with you, my dear. You’re not the boring kind,”
Felicity asserted, with a certainty which Meg found gratifying. “If you
weren’t so basically nice, you’d be faintly enigmatic.”
 “Enigmatic!” Meg had never heard of herself in that category. “In what
possible way?”

“The literal way,” Felicity explained. “One doesn’t really know quite
what to make of you. Even Dick says that.”

“But I’m quite ordinary and straightforward,” Meg protested. “There’s

nothing of the mystery woman about me.”

“N ... no. Not mysterious,” Felicity conceded. “Perhaps ‘intriguing’ is

more the word. Possibly it’s your very simplicity which makes you
intriguing. That in itself is novel in our world. I’m sure Leigh would agree.
Especially when he sees you in that dress.”

“But,” Meg pointed out, “Leigh doesn’t really belong to what you call
‘your world,’ does he?”

“Not really, no. That’s true. I forget that sometimes,” Felicity admitted
thoughtfully. “I often forgot it when he and I were—” she broke off,
without completing the sentence. She gave a nostalgic little sigh, then
shook her head and exclaimed impatiently, “It would never have worked,
anyway. He and I are too different. But it’s a pity. He’s a very attractive
person to have around ... don’t you think so?”

“Y-es.”
 Felicity laughed at the doubtful tone.

“You don’t think so?” she said.

“I can see that he would be very attractive to some people.” Meg agreed.
“The doubt in my mind was whether he would ever be the sort of person
one ‘had around.’ I can’t see him playing a passive role.”

“No. That was part of the trouble too,” Felicity declared. Then with one
of her unexpected flashes of self-knowledge, she added, “There’s only one
leading role in my circle and that’s mine. There isn’t room for any other big
personality.”

Meg laughed at such candor, but she said, quite sincerely; “Isn’t that a
little dull sometimes?”

“Dull, Meg?” Felicity looked at her incredulously. “Dull to be the center

of things? I told you you were an unusual girl. What on earth do you mean
by that?”

“Well—” Meg was faintly flustered “—if there were a man in my life—”

“Is there one?” interjected Felicity, with curiosity.

“Oh, no. But if there were, I don’t think I’d want the leading role all the
time. I think it’s more ... enjoyable to let him have it. It’s more ... I don’t
know quite how to put it ... in the nature of things, I suppose.”

Felicity gave her a long, reflective stare. Then she said, “Leigh Sontigan
should suit you perfectly.”

“Oh, but he doesn’t!” Meg protested. “I don’t really like him.”

“Are you sure?” Felicity smiled suddenly, in that half roguish, wholly
endearing way which made her look, for a moment, like Pearl.

“Of course I’m sure.” Meg spoke with more emphasis than was necessary.

“Well, how interesting,” Felicity said. And no amount of questioning

would make her enlarge on this cryptic observation.

The next few days passed uneventfully for Meg. Pearl needed to rest and
take things very quietly, so she and Meg spent a great deal of time in the
garden, relaxing in the warm September sunshine, reading, or playing quiet
games.

Pearl was excited that Meg was to go to the Northern Charities Ball with
her mother and uncle.

Good-humoredly, Felicity let her inspect the dress which she was lending
to Meg, Pearl pronounced it perfect for the occasion, and insisted on
gathering the necessary evening bag, gloves and wrap to accompany the
dress.

All these Felicity was willing and able to supply. The only thing which
Meg had to find for herself was a pair of evening slippers. And, since she
had to take Pearl into Newcastle on Monday for a check-up, it was agreed
that this last purchase be carried out then.

Meg’s father telephoned on Sunday evening to ask if there were any

chance of seeing his daughter, and Meg arranged with him that he pick up
Pearl and herself and drive them into Newcastle the following day.

“I’m afraid Claire won’t be available,” he explained regretfully over the

telephone. “She’s off on some shopping spree in connection with this
charity affair.”

“That’s all right.” Meg tried, not quite successfully, to keep the happy lilt
out of her voice. “Pearl and I will be pleased to have you to ourselves.”

And well pleased they were. From the first moment, Dr. Greenway, who
had always been particularly popular with his own child patients,
established friendly relations with Pearl. Meg noticed that the child not
only responded delightedly to his special brand of humor, but was also
reassured by the calm sense of security he imported.
 He was a great support and comfort during the session at the hospital, and
after that they all went shopping for Meg’s evening shoes. Combined
efforts and considerable generosity on her father’s part, produced the
perfect shoes for the occasion. Then they happily went to have tea.

“You’ll be s’prised when you see Meg at the ball,” Pearl could not resist
saying as she bit into her third cake. She’s got a marvelous dress.”

“I’m sure she has,” Dr. Greenway said good-humoredly. “Is it one I
know?”

Pearl and Meg exchanged a glance of delicious conspiracy. Then Meg

said, “No. You don’t know it.”

But Pearl cried, “Don’t tell him any more! Don’t tell him any more.” Dr.
Greenway pretended to be overcome by curiosity and interest, but he didn’t
learn any more about the dress, even on the long drive home.

“She’s a charming child,” Dr. Greenway said to Meg when Pearl, having
hugged and thanked him, had run on ahead into the house. “How long do
you intend to stay and look after her?”

“I don’t really know.” Meg looked a little surprised. “I haven’t done any
future planning. It’s pleasant sort of holiday job, at the moment. Any
definite decisions can wait until I see what develops.”
 “Yes, yes, of course,” her father agreed. “It was just ... Claire was asking
me how long you intended to stay in the north, and I told her I had no
idea.”

“You can tell her I have no idea either,” Meg said. Then she kissed her
father and followed Pearl into the house, thinking to herself, Why the
sudden interest in my future plans? Claire never asked me what I proposed,
to do when she made it clear I wasn’t welcome in my own home. It’s no
loving concern on my behalf that set her questioning Father, I’m sure!

The next evening Pearl was as excited as if she was going to the ball
herself. She hovered around while Meg and Felicity dressed, and she got in
Cecile’s way so much that even that devoted creature exasperatedly told her
to sit down and just watch.

“But you will do Meg’s hair the way Mommy says, won’t you?” Pearl
pleaded anxiously. “Doesn’t she look lovely?”

“Mademoiselle looks as she should look,” returned Cecile.

“I expect someone will fall in love with you, Meg. Perhaps more than one
person. Would you like that?” Pearl inquired.

“No. One at a time is quite enough to manage,” Meg replied. At which

Cecile gave a cynical little cackle and observed that a little rivalry was all
right among les messieurs.
 “I know what I wish,” exclaimed Pearl suddenly. Then she clapped her
hand over her mouth. “No, it’s unlucky to say, isn’t it?”

“Very unlucky,” declared Meg firmly, feeling she had enough to do to

carry out Felicity’s wishes without hearing about Pearl’s.

Just as Cecile put the last touch to Meg’s hair, Felicity swept in,
resplendent in the peacock blue dress and her mink jacket. On her arm she
carried what might be described as a lesser fur wrap, but one which was,
nevertheless, much more sumptuous than anything Meg had ever worn
before.

“Here you are, my dear.” Felicity handed over the wrap. “Yes, yes, Cecile,
that was just what I meant. You see the difference it makes?”

Everyone agreed that they saw the difference “it” made, and then a voice
was heard calling from below, “Are you two girls ready? Your chauffeur is
here.”

“That must be Dick,” Felicity exclaimed. “Run down and talk to him for a
few moments, Meg. I want Cecile to fix this bracelet for me.”

So Meg slipped on her fur wrap and ran downstairs, to find Leigh
Sontigan waiting in the drawing room.
 “Why, hello...” She paused in the doorway, a little put out to find that it
was not Dick who was there, then even more annoyed when she
remembered the role assigned to her for the evening.

“Hello!” he returned and came slowly toward her. "My dear Meg ... you
look stunning!”

“Oh, thank you.” She laughed and flushed. “It’s ... it’s the dress, you
know. Felicity lent it to me. It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Wonderful,” he agreed. “But it’s not only the dress itself. It’s the way
you wear it too. Like ... I don’t know ... like Cinderella on her way to the
ball, I suppose, corny as it sounds.”

“I feel like Cinderella on her way to the ball,” she admitted, and she
smiled at him ... for himself more than for the fact that she was supposed to
capture his attention for the evening. “I just hope there’s not too much
reaction when midnight strikes.”

“Midnight,” he reminded her, “is a long way off. Quite a lot can happen
before then, as Cinderella discovered.”

Again she laughed and flushed a little, though she was not quite sure why.
Then Felicity came down, followed by Pearl, who welcomed Leigh more
effusively than her mother did.
 “I thought Dick was picking us up,” observed Felicity, as she absently
offered Leigh her cheek to kiss.

“He had to see someone from the local press at the last minute,” Leigh
explained. “So I was assigned the very welcome task of collecting you both
instead.”

“He could have phoned Max.” Felicity shrugged slightly.

“Max?” Leigh raised inquiring eyebrows.

“Max Trenton, our new assistant producer. Some relations of his live in
one of the stately homes near here, and he’s staying with them at the
moment. He’s coming to the ball, in any case.”

Felicity supplied this information airily, but Meg saw Leigh give her a
reflective glance from slightly narrowed eyes, and she thought the
significance of it was not lost on him.

This, she supposed, was the moment when she was expected to distract
his thoughts. So she touched his arm lightly and said, “Shall we go?”

To her surprise, he looked faintly startled. But whether it was because he

had forgotten she was there or because of the intimacy of the gesture, she
was not quite sure.
 “Yes,” he said shortly. “Let’s go.”

They said good night to Pearl and Cecile, and went out. Just as they
reached the gate, however, an elegant, low-slung car drove up and a tall,
lanky man with expressive hands and somewhat untidy dark hair emerged.

“Max!” exclaimed Felicity with unmistakable pleasure. “I thought you

weren’t going to be able to make it until much later.”

“I got through sooner than I expected, and thought I might be useful with
the car. However—”

“Yes, indeed,” Felicity assured him, before anyone could suggest that his
services were superfluous. “You can take me, and Leigh will take Meg.
That way we can both spread out our finery and arrive unwrinkled.”

Felicity slipped gracefully into Max Trenton’s gay contraption, while

Leigh opened the door of his car for Meg.

She supposed he must feel annoyed and rebuffed. It was difficult to see
how anyone could feel otherwise in the circumstances. But she had to hand
it to him, he controlled his feelings admirably, and didn’t give the slightest
hint that she was less welcome than Felicity would have been.

Perhaps because of this, or perhaps because she felt she had to plunge into
her role right away, she said as they moved off, “I’m really thrilled about
this evening!”

“Are you?” He must have realized that there was something genuinely
friendly in this confidence, for he gave her an indulgent smile. “Didn’t they
have much of this kind of thing in your home town?”

“Oh, no! Or, if they did, I didn’t have a chance to go.”

“Then we must see that tonight is a very special occasion,” he said, still
smiling faintly.

“Oh, it will be almost enough just to wear this gorgeous dress and watch
the fun,” she assured him. “I don’t mind if I do a lot of looking on. After
all, I don’t know most of the people there.”

“You know me.”

“Yes, of course. And Dick Manners. Though I believe Dick has many
duties in connection with the evening.”

“I don’t have any duties in connection with the evening,” he informed her
with a smile.

“No, but—”

“But what?” he wanted to know.

 “You mustn’t feel that you have to bother about me. You ... there’ll be
other friends you want to spend your time with.”

She couldn’t imagine why she had said that. It was the sort of thing
opposite to what Felicity wanted her to say, but something deep inside her
suddenly rebelled at the way Leigh was being treated.

However, if she had intended her words to induce sympathetic reaction,

she could hardly have been more successful. He took one hand from the
wheel and lightly patted hers as they lay in her lap.

“Nice child,” he said. “It won’t be any bother to see that you enjoy your
evening. And thanks for the reference to ‘other friends.’ That makes you
one by implication.”

“Does it?” she said doubtfully.

“Well ... doesn’t it?” He flashed her a laughing glance. “Or are you still
determined to rate me an objectionable fellow?”

“I never said you were ... that,” she protested.

“You gave a very good impression of thinking it,” he assured her good-
humoredly. “And you snubbed me when I tried to find out why.”
 “I’m sorry.” She was sorry, too. It had nothing to do with playing a part or
trying to engage his attention for the evening. She was just suddenly sorry
that she had been curt and unfriendly from the beginning.

“Forget it,” he said easily.

But she could not quite forget it. Instead she said slowly, and with a little
difficulty,

“I think I was a bit ... mixed up in my own mind about things. I felt
resentful ... You see, I—”

“My dear,” he interrupted her, with a gentle note in his voice, “You don’t
have to apologize or explain. You’d have been superhuman if you’d
managed to welcome me into your circle of friends, once you knew who I
was. It must be hard to have someone take one’s place in one’s own home.
And although I’m not disloyal to my sister, I’m aware that Claire could not
have been an easy supplanter.”

“Oh, you ... you do know that?” she said in a small voice.

“Yes,” he replied, without elaboration. And, after a long while, she said
softly,

“Thank you. It’s ... nice of you to understand.”

 “One never really understands another person’s troubles and heartache,”
was the astonishing admission he then made. “But one can try to. Here we
are, Cinderella. The evening is yours.”

She had been so engaged in the conversation that she had not noticed their
arrival at the hotel where the ball was being held. But as they drew up
before the floodlit entrance, she saw that crowds were being held back with
some difficulty, and that Felicity was pausing for a moment to smile into a
battery of cameras.

“Now it’s your turn,” Leigh told her with a smile. To her astonishment, as
she stepped out of his car, she heard the clicking of cameras once more.

An attendant took Leigh’s car away to the parking lot and they entered the
building together.

The foyer was crowded, and for a moment Meg couldn’t see Felicity.
Then her father and Claire detached themselves from an animated group
and came over to her and Leigh.

“My dear child!” There was no mistaking her father’s pride in her
appearance. “Pearl was quite right. This is a surprise! And a lovely
surprise, at that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so beautiful.”

Meg smiled and said, “It’s the dress. Isn’t it lovely?”

 “Very grand.” That was Claire, surveying Meg with an air of dissatisfied
astonishment.

“But gorgeously simple too,” interjected her brother easily. “She’ll be the
envy of all the women here.”

“Well—” Claire raised her eyebrows and smiled slightly, as though to say
she could be counted out of that. “Where did you get it, Meg dear?”

“Why, Felicity lent it to me.”

“Oh, it’s borrowed,” said Claire, in a tone calculated to take all pleasure
and glamor away from it.

At that moment, Felicity swept up to them and addressed Claire as though

she had known her all her life.

“It’s not really,” she explained. “I’m going to make her keep it, because
no one else would ever be able to wear it as well as she does. You must be
Meg’s stepmother,” she ended sweetly, in some inexplicable way adding
ten years to Claire’s age by that simple statement.

“And you,” Felicity added, turning to Dr. Greenway with her most
ravishing smile, “Must be her father. You must both be really proud of your
daughter tonight. I’m going to keep you both with me while I tell you what
a jewel she’s been.”
 And linking her arms with a willing Dr. Greenway and an unwilling
Claire, she swept them towards the ballroom.

Meg and Leigh followed at a distance and, glancing at him, Meg saw that
he was biting his lips to keep from smiling.

“I love Felicity!” she exclaimed almost passionately.

“So do I, unfortunately,” he admitted. “When I’m not longing to wring

her neck, I mean. But that’s always the way. Just as one feels one could kill
her, she does something utterly generous and humorous and imaginative
like that.”

“I’m so sorry,” Meg said sincerely.

“About what?”

“I mean ... about your loving her ... unfortunately, as you say. I’m afraid it
hurts a lot if one ... feels that way and ... and doesn’t have the feeling
returned.”

“It does,” he agreed dryly. “Shall we dance?”

So they danced. Meg made the discovery that Leigh was an exceedingly
good dancer, and that their steps matched excellently. She was sorry when
Dick Manners came up at the end of the dance, and said, “You can’t have
all the fun, Leigh. Please let me have the next dance, Meg, before I get
bogged down again with all those reporters.”

She laughed. But she let Dick take her away, and she was amused and
gratified to have him say, “Don’t let Leigh monopolize you. Some other
men want to dance with the prettiest woman in the room too.”

“You know perfectly well that description doesn’t apply to me ...

particularly with your sister in the same room,” Meg told him. “But thanks
for the pretence. It does lots for my morale.”

“Surely your morale doesn’t need any boosting tonight.” He looked down
at her, with a lazy interest that was almost affectionate.

“Only when Claire ... when my stepmother’s around. And Felicity dealt
with her superbly. I must say, you’re an extraordinarily nice family in your
attitude toward me.”

“Tell me about Felicity downing the stepmother,” he begged. When she

told him the story, Dick laughed heartily and said he was sorry to have
missed “the cat show.”

She was faintly shocked at the term, but that only made him laugh again
and protest that she was “too scrupulous in the choice of weapons.”
 “My sister and your stepmother are probably well able to measure each
other up,” he assured her lightly. “They’re two of a kind, really.”

“They’re nothing of the sort!” retorted Meg indignantly. “Felicity is ten

times nicer.”

He looked down at her and very slightly tightened' his arm. “You’re
genuinely fond of Felicity, aren’t you?” he said.

“Why ... yes, I suppose I am,” Meg agreed slowly. “I don’t often say that
about people. I mean ... it doesn’t come easily to me to express affection
—”

“No, I know.” He looked quite serious for a moment, and, in some odd
way, melancholy. “You’re the sanest and most stable thing that’s come into
our circle for a long time, Meg. Don’t go out of it too quickly, will you?”

“Why, Dick—” she was both astonished and touched by his words, and,
even more, by the serious tone of his voice “—how very nice of you to say
that. But it’s a bit of an exaggeration, I’m afraid. I find you all most
endearing and attractive—but really, I’m just a rather ordinary person.”

“Oh, no.” He shook his head and smiled. “You’re the rather extraordinary
girl who has had an influence on all of us.”

“I don’t know what you mean!” she exclaimed.

 “No? Well, it’s a little difficult to describe. But you have a stabilizing
effect on Felicity ... and therefore, to some extent, on all of us.”

“On ... you, for instance?” Meg asked incredulously.

“Yes, even on me, I suppose.” He laughed, as though the idea surprised

and amused him. “At least you make my life easier.”

“Do I, Dick?”

“Yes ... bless you.” He dropped a light kiss on the top of her head, which
half embarrassed and half charmed her. No one else had ever done anything
like that to her before.

“Well, I’m glad ... though rather puzzled,” she admitted. “I thought all I
was doing was keeping an eye on Pearl, and seeing that she had a more
natural life than she seemed to be having when I first found her.”

“Basically, that’s the truth, of course,” he agreed. “But you can’t create an
oasis of calm and sanity in Felicity’s crazy world without having it spread
beyond the immediate objective.”

“I suppose not. Anyway, I’m very glad, if that’s what I’m doing.” Meg
looked up at him happily. “And, to return to what you asked in the
beginning ... I’m truly fond of Felicity. And I think I rather like her crazy
world.”
 “It has its charm.” He shrugged very slightly. “And so, of course, has she.
But don’t let her use you too much, Meg.”

“Use me? I don’t think she uses me.”

“Of course she does. She uses all of us but with such charm and such
flashes of generosity and affection that we let her do it. But most of us
know the game better than you do, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I don’t think there’s any way in which I could get hurt,” Meg assured
him gravely.

“No?” He smiled dryly. Then, almost irrelevantly, asked, “What did she
ask you to do regarding Leigh Sontigan?”

“Leigh? Oh—” she blushed a clear pink. “That was just ... How did you
know?” she inquired quickly. “Did she tell you?”

“No, of course not. But by now I can guess Felicity’s actions and
reactions to a hair’s breadth. Make no mistake, I’m very fond of her. But I
have no illusions about her. I suppose she asked you to keep Leigh out of
the way, while she had a good time with Max?”

“ ‘Take him off her hands’ was the expression,” Meg conceded, with a
flash of humor.
 “I see.” And, as she glanced up at him, she saw a slight tightening of his
handsome mouth. It struck her for the first time that Dick was an
unexpectedly strong and determined person behind his casual exterior.

“Don’t take the instructions too seriously,” he said.

“I didn’t. At least, I began to feel that it wasn’t fair to him, and so—”

“To him?” Dick asked in surprise. “I was thinking it wasn’t fair to you.”

“I haven’t any stake in the game,” Meg declared surprisedly.

“But you might, my dear, you might. Sontigan’s an attractive fellow. If

the process of ‘taking him off Felicity’s hands’ were prolonged, you might
become involved yourself.”

“Grow fond of him, do you mean?”

“Yes, that’s what I mean.”

“Oh no!” said Meg, and laughed. “No, really, that isn’t likely. He isn’t my
type.”

Then suddenly she stopped laughing, because she remembered Felicity

saying, “Leigh Sontigan should suit you perfectly.” And although the
words were ridiculous, the recollection of them made her feel
apprehensive.
 CHAPTER SIX
During that whole enchanted evening, Meg never once lost the delicious
feeling of being Cinderella at the ball.

The gorgeous dress and the fact that she had never looked so lovely in her
life of course contributed greatly to the general fairytale atmosphere, but it
was more the conviction that none of this had anything to do with her kind
of life, which made the evening magnificent.

That both Dick Manners and Leigh Sontigan should compete in a friendly
way for her company throughout the evening seemed in keeping with the
fact that she neither looked nor felt as she had ever looked or felt before in
her life.

In addition, she was aware that Claire cast an occasional critical glance in
her direction, but this only served to add to the general pleasure. After all, a
stepmother is part of most fairy tales!

Once during the evening Meg found herself near Felicity for a few
minutes, and her employer asked her how she was enjoying herself.

“Enormously!” Meg declared. “And thank you for speaking so kindly

about me to my father. I think he was gratified.”
 “And the stepmother? Was she gratified too?” asked Felicity, with a
roguish little smile.

“Well, you dealt with her very expertly, anyway.” Meg smiled in return.
“It was nice of you to pretend that you were going to give me the dress, so
that she—”

“It wasn’t pretence. I am giving you the dress.”

“Oh, you can’t! Not anything as beautiful and valuable as this! I haven’t
done a thing to deserve it and—”

“But you have. And anyway, the dress looks so lovely on you that no one
else ought to wear it ever,” Felicity declared. “How are you getting along
with Leigh?”

“Very well. But about the dress—”

“No. Not about the dress. It’s yours. Tell me about Leigh instead.”

Meg felt guiltily that there was not very much to tell her about Leigh but
she said earnestly, “I’ve spent a good deal of the evening with him, as
you’ve probably noticed—”

“No. I’ve been otherwise engaged,” declared Felicity, with that quick
smile. “But go on.”
 “He has been a very nice and easy companion, and never once made me
feel that he wished he were partnering someone else. If he’s looked on it as
a social duty—”

“I don’t think,” interrupted Felicity indulgently, “that ‘duty’ is the word

any man would connect with you tonight. You’ve made quite a hit with
Dick, by the way.”

“Oh—” Meg laughed, on a note of genuine pleasure “—he’s so kind and

amusing. But then everyone has been so kind to me tonight.”

“That’s as it should be,” Felicity said agreeably. Then the chairman of the
Charity Ball Committee came to appropriate her. Meg’s father appeared and
took her off to have supper with Claire and Leigh and himself. There was
an excellent cabaret, and apart from the fact that Claire was rather silent,
this was as enjoyable a part of the evening as any.

On Leigh’s suggestion and with the enthusiastic support of Dr. Greenway

it was arranged that they dine out together the following evening, provided
Meg could get more time off.

“We won’t be here more than a day or two longer,” her father said, “and
we’d like one family evening together.”

Leigh said, “Yes, indeed,” and because Claire said nothing at all, the
suggestion was unopposed.
 “Maybe we could all gather at my place for drinks first about six-thirty.”
Leigh suggested. “I’m sorry I can’t fetch you, Meg. I have a conference in
the afternoon and can’t just say when I’ll get away. Perhaps your father—”

“No, it’s all right, thanks,” Meg insisted. “I’ll come in by bus.” After a
slight but amiable argument on this point, it was agreed that Meg should
make her way to Leigh’s flat on her own, especially after Claire reminded
her husband that he was meeting a colleague the following afternoon and
might not want to hurry away.

It wasn’t possible to ask Felicity about having the next evening off until it
was almost time to go home, but she agreed immediately, though in
equivocal terms.

“With whom, dear? Leigh? Why, of course. As a matter of fact, that’s a

good idea.”

Meg hastened to explain that it was to be a family party but Felicity

seemed to take little account of that, and repeated, “An excellent idea under
the circumstances.”

Inevitably, Meg found herself the odd passenger in Max Trenton’s car on
the way home. Since he was staying within a mile or two of Purworth, he
naturally took Felicity home, and there was plenty of spare room in his car
for Meg.
 Meg made herself as scarce as possible in the back of the car, but even so,
she felt like an eavesdropper, as the two in front laughed and talked
intimately, with their heads close together. At no point did they offer to
include her in the conversation.

Finally she pretended to go to sleep, and only roused herself, with

convincing signs of sleepy confusion when they reached home.

Everyone slept late the next morning, even Pearl, who had been allowed
to stay up late the previous evening. They spent most of the day discussing
the Ball for Pearl’s benefit.

“I enjoyed it a great deal more than I usually enjoy these things,” Felicity
admitted. “But then, of course, Max was there,”

“So was Leigh,” said Pearl, a little defensively.

“Yes, Meg had a lovely time with him,” her mother returned carelessly.

“Did you, Meg?” The little girl turned eagerly to her.

“Why, certainly. And with your Uncle Dick and ... and other people,” Meg
explained hastily.

“But particularly with Leigh,” Felicity reiterated, with a mischievous

laugh. “She’s going out with him again this evening, aren’t you, Meg?”
 “With my father and stepmother too,” Meg reminded her firmly.

“Darling, what bad management on your part, if you don’t mind my

saying so! I think your father’s sweet, but I certainly would have managed
to give Claire the slip for the evening.”

“Somewhat difficult, since the invitation was for a family dinner,” Meg
pointed out, smiling.

“I’d have managed something,” Felicity said, looking sweet and vague.
Meg had no doubt whatever that she would.

It was easy enough to make the journey to Newcastle by bus, and she got
off within walking distance of Leigh’s apartment.

She was a little early, so she walked slowly, taking in the charm and
elegance of the houses around her and reflecting that Leigh must certainly
be in “the upper income bracket” if he lived in this neighborhood.

Slowly though she had walked, she had still arrived before her host.

“But Mrs. Greenway is here, madam,” the butler explained. “Please come
this way.”

And against her will, Meg was shown into a long, pleasant drawing room
where Claire was waiting.
 “Hello—” Claire glanced up from the fashion magazine she had been
studying “—we both seem to have beaten our menfolk. Leigh phoned to
say he had been delayed, but hopes to be here in half an hour, and I don’t
know what has happened to your father.”

“He and Dr. Shepherd probably started about old times,” Meg said with a
smile. “He’d forget all about the time.”

There was slight pause. Then, to make conversation, Meg went on “—

Wasn’t it fun last night?”

“I noticed you had lots of fun,” Claire agreed.

“Didn’t you?” asked Meg.

“Oh, yes, certainly.” Claire flipped a few pages idly. Without looking up,
she went on, “I wonder at you being patronized by that shallow Felicity
Manners.”

“I wouldn’t describe her as shallow, and she never attempts to patronize

me,” replied Meg, with self-control. “What makes you think she does?”

“Why, letting you borrow her clothes when she has no more use for them;
and at the same time calling you ‘darling’ in that condescending way.”
 Meg took a deep breath and silently counted to ten. Then she said dryly, “I
don’t think you could have been in a very good mood last night, Claire, if
that was the way you interpreted Felicity’s generosity and friendliness.
Nothing could have been nicer than the way she insisted on lending me her
lovely dress. It was a charming gesture, which gave me a lot of pleasure.
And incidentally provided me with a much livelier evening than I’d have
otherwise had. It does things to one to wear a dress like that.”

“Yes, I noticed it went to your head.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You know perfectly well what I mean.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Well, really Meg—” Claire shrugged deprecatingly “—if you don’t know
that you made yourself conspicuous, throwing yourself at Leigh like that
—!”

“I did nothing of the sort!” exclaimed Meg angrily. “You have absolutely
no right to say such a thing.”

“Well, didn’t you see to it that he spent most of the evening with you,
even though—”
 “Leigh had no need to spend any more of the evening with me than he
himself wished,” said Meg coldly.

“Well, of course, it’s no concern of mine if you choose to make yourself

conspicuous—”

“There at least you’re right,” agreed Meg shortly.

“But it is my business if I think my brother’s heading for disaster.”

“I gather that by ‘disaster’ you mean me?”

“Well, I don’t want to put it too bluntly,” said Claire. “But yes, I do think
it would be a bad thing for Leigh to get entangled with you. I don’t think
you’re the right girl for him at all.”

In an effort to control her anger, Meg got up and walked across the room
and back again. Then she stopped in front of the other girl and said, as
calmly as she could, “If you weren’t my father’s wife, Claire, I’d walk out
now and never speak to you again. I know you dislike me and are, quite
unnecessarily, jealous of me. But, in common decency, you might try to
conceal the fact better. You’ve invented this whole ridiculous, offensive
story for your own malicious pleasure. There’s no question whatever of
Leigh’s getting entangled with me ... or, for the matter of that, my getting
entangled with him. Why you should ever have thought so I simply can’t
imagine!”
 “Perhaps Because I know a little more about the general background than
you imagine,” replied Claire, apparently unmoved by this outburst though
she shifted slightly in her chair. “Leigh wrote to me, just after my marriage,
and said I might be hearing similar news from him soon. That’s one reason
why I persuaded Gerald to bring me to Northumberland for the second half
of our honeymoon. I used my eyes and ears, and as far as I can see there’s
only one girl who’s seeing a lot of Leigh, and that's you. You mustn’t be
surprised if I draw the obvious conclusion.”

“But—” Meg gave a furious little laugh—“you’ve got the whole thing
wrong! I wasn’t the girl he expected to marry. By the time I came on the
scene that was all over.”

“What do you mean by that?” Claire did look slightly shaken at last.
“Who was the girl, then?”

“I can’t see that it’s your business, but I suppose you could find out by
asking any one of half a dozen people. For what I suppose was a very short
while, he was engaged to Felicity.”

“Felicity Manners!” The prospect seemed hardly more palatable to Claire

than her original story. “But she hardly spoke to him last night.”

“No. I know. That was my—”

“Your what?” asked Claire sharply as Meg stopped abruptly.

 “It doesn’t matter.”

“I suppose you were going to say that was your chance,” said Claire
contemptuously. “So I wasn’t far off.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort,” retorted Meg, now too angry
to pick her words with care. “I was going to say that was my role. I was to
take Leigh off Felicity’s hands because she wanted to enjoy herself with
someone else. If any of my conduct looked at all forward under your
malicious microscope, that was the explanation. Now perhaps you’ll realize
how silly you’ve been.”

And, turning sharply away from her, Meg almost collided with someone
who had come quietly into the room and was standing behind her. For a
moment she thought it was her father, and was ashamed that he should have
heard her speaking to Claire that way. Then she saw it was Leigh ... and
was immediately engulfed in the most unspeakable dismay she had ever
experienced.

“I ... I’m sorry,” she stammered inadequately. “I didn’t realize you were
there.”

“So I gathered,” he said. “Will you have a drink?” He went over to a side
table where bottles and glasses were set out.
 “Sh-sherry, please,” she managed to say, over the lump in her throat. But
she still stood there, staring at his broad back in embarrassment and misery.

She had apologized for nearly knocking into him. At least she supposed
that was what she had apologized for, in that first breathless reaction. But
how ... in what possible words ... did one apologize for the awful,
humiliating insult she had given him?

If only Claire had not been there, she would have found some way,
however inadequate, to extract some of the sting from what she had said.
But Claire was there, smiling in a faintly satisfied way, as if she wanted to
drive a wedge between her brother and Meg.

At last, her father arrived—cheerful, apologetic, and unaware of any

undercurrents in the interchange of family chit-chat. His presence gave
Meg a sense of relief. At least she could talk to him without feeling
overwhelmed by shame and regret. For his sake she made a tremendous
effort to appear natural and happy, and, in so doing, she regained some
measure of self-possession.

Once they left the intimacy of Leigh’s home and drove to the restaurant it
was a little easier. Meg sat beside her father in the car, while Claire sat in
front with Leigh.

During the drive Meg whispered, “Father, have you got your car handy? I
want you to drive me home tonight.”
 “Why, yes, my dear. I parked it near Leigh’s place. There didn’t seem any
sense in taking two cars downtown—”

“No, no. Not for now. It’s all right this way for now. But later please see
that it’s you who drives me home. I ... I’ve seen so little of you,” she
explained rather feverishly.

“Well, we didn’t do too badly the last two days,” he pointed out good-
humoredly. But he put his arm around her and gave her a reassuring
squeeze. “Is anything wrong, Meg?”

“No, no,” she assured him. “Nothing at all.” But she had a great desire to
put her head down against him and cry.

Leigh was a proud man—she felt sure of that. There was a touch of
arrogance about him, justified by his good looks, his vitality, and the
position he had made for himself in the world. But it must have been
embarrassing for him to hear that her friendliness the previous evening had
been dictated by the necessity of obliging Felicity.

Anyway, thought Meg miserably, that wasn’t my principal reason for

being friendly toward him. I’d got over that silly early prejudice about his
being Claire’s brother. He was so understanding and generous about my
difficulties with her. I can’t bear that he should think the whole thing was a
bit of make-believe on my part.
 At the same time, she could not imagine herself trying to explain things to
him. The thought of having to drive home to Purworth with him put her in a
panic.

All things considered, they contrived to have an outwardly agreeable

evening. Except for Dr. Greenway, they must all have had considerable
strain put upon their social discipline, Meg supposed, but they came
through well.

Only once did she dare to look directly at Leigh, and then she found his
dark eyes fixed upon her with a cold expression she had never seen before.
He looked as though he were summing her up in a new light and not liking
the result.

In her nervousness, she felt her mouth relax into a timid little smile and
her long lashes flickered without her being able to control them. But he
looked away, without apparently noticing her smile.

Doggedly she ploughed her way through the delicious meal. Determinedly
she took part in the conversation. And, courageously, she even managed to
laugh at her father’s jokes and to think up a few in return.

It was over at last; fortunately no one wanted to make a late night of it.

“If you’ll drive us back to your place, Leigh, I’ll collect my car, drop
Claire at the hotel so that she can get a good night’s sleep and take Meg out
to Purworth,” Dr. Greenway said, as they emerged from the restaurant into
the cool night air.

“I’ll drive Meg home,” Leigh offered carelessly.

Meg’s fingers dug pleadingly into her father’s arm, and he said, with that
pleasant firmness which all his patients knew, “Thank you. But I’ll enjoy
doing that myself. As Meg says, I haven’t seen any too much of her.”

“I see.” Leigh was perfectly agreeable about it, but once more he cast a
momentary glance at her, and Meg was sure he knew it was by her
arrangement that her father was driving her home.

The goodnights and the thanks were said. Leigh went off in his own car to
the garage at the side of the apartment, Claire was dropped at the hotel, and
at last Meg was alone with her father. He didn’t know about that horrible
scene in Leigh’s apartment so she could pretend for an hour that it had not
happened.

They talked pleasantly about their personal affairs, and he made her feel
again that, as far as he was concerned, she would be always welcome in his
home. It soothed and pleased her, even though she knew that Claire’s
attitude precluded her taking advantage of the open invitation except in
special circumstances. When she finally said goodnight to her father, she
felt calm and relaxed.
 Felicity was still up, on a sofa in the living room, flicking the pages of a
new script. She looked up and smiled as though she were genuinely pleased
to see Meg—as indeed she probably was, since what she was doing at the
moment bored her.

“Had a good time?” she inquired.

“Yes ... No ... Horrible,” said Meg, and began to cry.

“Good heavens, Meg! What’s the matter? I never thought you did that,”
exclaimed Felicity. “Have you quarreled with your father or something?”

“Oh, no!”

“With your stepmother? No, of course it can’t be that. Why should you
cry about her? Then it must be with Leigh. But I wouldn’t have thought that
would matter to you.”

“Of course it matters,” sobbed Meg. “But anyway, I haven’t quarreled

with him,” she added confusedly.

“What have you done with him that does matter, then?” inquired Felicity,
with the patient exactness born of curiosity.

“M-made him feel humiliated and furious and ... hurt.”

 “I doubt it. He’s tougher than you think,” replied Felicity calmly. “How
did you achieve this unusual situation?”

“It was all Claire’s fault—” Meg screwed her handkerchief into a tight
ball and dabbed her eyes. “I’m sorry to have made this ridiculous scene.”

“It doesn’t matter. Everyone cries some time, if it’s only with rage,”
Felicity assured her comfortingly. “And I’m sure it was Claire’s fault. Do
tell me about it.”

So Meg, a trifle apprehensive now that she remembered Felicity’s own

part in this, told the story.

“I’m terribly sorry I let my anger run away with me so that I didn’t think
what I was saying,” Meg told her contritely. “But Claire goaded me ... and I
never thought of his actually hearing me say that you ... that we ... had
arranged to bamboozle him in that horrid way.”

“Well, of course it isn’t the kind of thing you say to anyone’s face,”
Felicity agreed. “But I think you’re distressing yourself too much. I didn’t
want him to bother me yesterday and you did put up a very enjoyable
pretence of wanting him to partner you.”

“It wasn’t a pretence,” said Meg huskily. “I genuinely enjoyed being with
him.”
 “Well, that’s even nicer,” Felicity assured her cheerfully. “No pretence
involved.”

“But he’s heard me say to Claire that none of it meant anything, that I was
putting up a friendly facade for your convenience. It’s about the nastiest
thing a man can hear of himself! That one woman made a fuss over him so
that another could give him the slip.”

“Not the slip, exactly. But I see what you mean,” Felicity looked
thoughtful. “Yes ... I suppose that would get under Leigh’s skin. But don’t
worry, my dear. It isn’t as though you like him. You told me you didn’t.”

“But I ... I don’t like the idea of hurting or humiliating anyone. It’s a
horrible feeling!”

“One has to do it sometimes,” said Felicity. “It isn’t possible to go

through life without inflicting a few nasty wounds. You’re overtired after
last night. Things will look different in the morning.”

Meg didn’t really think they would, but she gave a shaky little laugh.

“There’s one thing,” Felicity went on, in a satisfied tone, “it will tend to
keep Leigh away from here, and that’s for the good, really. He’ll only make
trouble, if he realizes that I’m a little bit in love with Max. And you don’t
want him around anyway, do you?”
 “N ... no,” said Meg, and wondered why she was unable to make that
sound more positive.

“That’s splendid, then,” declared Felicity.

The next day Meg had to submit to Pearl’s questions, but by then she was
in full command of herself again.

Only when Pearl asked, “Did Leigh say when he might come and see
me?” did she grow evasive.

“I hope he comes soon. It’s so nice having him be friendly with you,
Meg,” Pearl said confidingly. “Do you know what I wish?”

“I thought it was unlucky to tell,” Meg reminded her with a smile.

“I don’t believe it is. Not if it’s a good idea. I wish Leigh would marry
you if he’s not going to marry Mommy. Then I could come and stay with
you both sometimes, couldn’t I?”

“Certainly not!” said Meg almost violently.

“Wouldn’t you want me?” Pearl opened her eyes wide in wounded
surprise.
 “Yes, yes ... of course I should want you. I didn’t mean that. I meant—”
Meg became confused “—the whole idea is ridiculous, and you mustn’t
make suggestions like that, Pearl dear. They embarrass people.”

“I don’t think it would embarrass Leigh,” said Pearl, sucking in her

cheeks thoughtfully.

Meg supposed that was right. It must take a lot to embarrass Leigh, she
thought. Even last night he had not looked actually embarrassed, only very
angry. Meg sighed involuntarily at the thought.

Felicity, after two days’ rest while other parts of the film were being shot,
had gone off early that morning with Cecile. Meg and Pearl spent the
morning alone. Then, in the afternoon, Pearl received an informal invitation
to join the vicar’s children for the youngest one’s birthday party.

“Shall I go, Meg?” Pearl who had so little companionship with other
children, looked at Meg with shining eyes. “Do you mind being left alone?”

“Not in the least, darling. Of course you must go,” Meg told her. “I shall
be perfectly happy on my own in the garden. And I’ll come and fetch you
about seven.”

So Pearl, in a state of excitement which Meg found faintly pathetic, went

off with the two younger vicarage children. Having attended to minor
chores in the house, Meg went out into the garden.
 It was deliciously peaceful, in a garden chair under the trees. The mingled
sounds of the countryside were a muted chorus in the background of her
consciousness. She lay there with her eyes closed and the sun on her face,
and felt that, after all, there was an answer to every problem somewhere.

Occasionally the hum of a passing car drew her attention more than the
other sounds, but when one car actually came to a halt at the gate, she was
already too sleepy to be aware of it. Only when a shadow fell across her,
bringing a faint chill instead of the warmth of the sun, did she start.

And then she saw that Leigh Sontigan was standing there, looking down
at her.

“Why—” she sat up in great confusion “—I ... I never heard you come in
the gate. I’m afraid Felicity isn’t at home. Nor is Pearl.”

“That’s all right,” he said dryly, as he sat down in the chair opposite her.
“I didn’t come to see either of them. I came to see you, Meg. I think it’s
about time you and I had a talk.”
 CHAPTER SEVEN

“You want us ... to have ... a talk?” stammered Meg, looking across at
Leigh nervously. “What about?”

“Don’t you know?” He swung one leg carelessly over the other and
regarded her with attention. “They say eavesdroppers never hear good
about themselves, Meg, and I certainly had proof of that yesterday, even if I
didn’t eavesdrop intentionally. But since I did hear what was said, I’d like
some further explanation.”

“I didn’t really mean to say that—” she began unhappily.

But he interrupted her. “On the contrary, you could hardly have spoken
with more force or conviction. If you remember, ‘My role was to take
Leigh off Felicity’s hands because she wanted to enjoy herself with
someone else,’ ” he quoted with horrible accuracy. “Wasn’t that what you
said?”

Silence.

“Well, wasn’t it?”

 “Leigh, I can’t tell you how sorry I am—”

“You don’t have to,” he interrupted coldly. “And it would bore me if you
tried. I just want to know what lay behind that statement.”

She winced, but she knew it was useless to go on prevaricating. He had

no intention of going away until he had got the truth out of her.

“It was just after Felicity had so kindly offered to lend me her dress,” she
began helplessly. “And I said—”

“You mean the dress was the price of your services?”

“No, it was not!” she retorted indignantly. “But I was immensely grateful
for her kindness, and I said ... as I suppose anyone might have said ... that I
wished I could do something for her in return. And n-not very seriously,
she told me she would be obliged if I ... if I would spend a good deal of my
evening with you—”

“Take me off her hands,” he reminded her unkindly.

“—As she wanted to be free to enjoy herself with someone else.”

“With whom?”

“That,” said Meg firmly, “was not my concern.”

 “All right. Your business was simply to hand me out some ingenuous
eyewash about being thrilled but nervous at your first ball. The Cinderella
treatment. So that I’d feel compelled to devote most of my evening to you.”

“Did you really act under a feeling of compulsion?” Meg inquired with
some spirit. “You didn’t give that impression at all.”

He looked slightly taken aback at that. And, on sudden inspiration, she

pressed her advantage.

“In fact, I seem to remember that, though I gave you quite a useful escape
route you refused to take it. I told you that you needn’t bother with me,
didn’t I? That you would want to spend the evening with your other, friends
too.”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “So you did. I forgot that. Why did you tell me
that? It wasn’t exactly in the part, surely.”

“No, it wasn’t in the part.”

“Then why did you say it?”

“Oh—” she pushed back her hair distractedly “—I suppose I felt ...
ashamed.”
 “You don’t say!” He permitted himself a sceptical smile which made her
resentment flare again.

“Aren’t we making this rather heavy?” she said curtly. “Suppose I did
agree to ... to distract your attention, was that such a crime—considering
that you seemed to get an entertaining evening out of it?”

“No,” he agreed. “It wasn’t a crime. Just a shabby piece of deception

which takes the meaning out of friendship. No man wants to feel he’s been
made a fool of ... by someone he likes.”

That stung her, and she exclaimed quickly, “I did not make a fool of you!”

“Then I don’t know what the term means. You pretended ... very ably, I
must say ... to an impulsive friendliness which made our previous
antagonism seem like a thing of the past. I ... fell for that pretty thoroughly.
It’s rather galling to find later that the whole thing was a pretense, designed
to take me—”

“It wasn’t ... all pretense,” she said, unable to keep back the words.

But he stared at her with disconcerting coldness, as though he thought her

words belated and clumsy.

“The play’s over,” he informed her dryly. “Let’s leave it at that.” And he
got to his feet with a finality that chilled her.
 For a moment she thought she couldn’t let him go like that. Twisting her
hands nervously together, she said, “I suppose it’s ... it’s no good saying
that I’m sorry?”

“It would be sort of a waste of time,” he assured her.

Then he nodded to her with unfriendly carelessness and went away.

For a long time after he had gone, she lay in her deck chair, trying to tell
herself that it didn’t matter, really ... that Leigh Sontigan didn’t mean a
thing to her. But, though the words formed easily in her mind, they
conveyed no consolation, or even meaning, to her heart.

Of course she had not been as mean as Leigh supposed, but she had made
a pretence of friendliness for an ulterior motive. And if, in the process, the
pretence had, in some inexplicable way, merged into reality, it was asking
too much that the victim of the pretence should believe it.

I’m doing what I accused him of doing ... making too much of a minor
matter, she told herself. “No man cares to feel he has been made a fool of
by someone he likes.”

That was what hurt. The admission that he had liked her. And it was no
good pretending to herself that she was indifferent to his good opinion.
When she thought of his final cold glance as he turned away, it seemed to
her that she would have given anything to have him treat her once more
with that gay, teasing, strangely heart-warming friendliness that she had
once thought unimportant.

Presently she got up and went into the house to make herself a cup of tea.
Usually she didn’t mind her own company, but at this moment she would
have welcomed almost anyone—except Claire.

No one came, however, and she finally went to collect Pearl from her
party.

Pearl, who had had a wonderful time, was too full of her own affairs to
notice anyone else’s mood. She thanked her hostess with a touch of almost
ceremonious charm and was assured that she could come again very soon.

“It was absolutely lovely!” she told Meg, as she skipped along beside her
on the way home. “They haven’t many toys or games but they make up
their own games, and that’s much more fun.”

Meg agreed, knowing how badly Pearl needed this kind of easy
companionship.

Felicity, too, when she came home seemed pleased to hear about the visit
to the vicarage. After Pearl had gone to bed, she unexpectedly reverted to
the subject. “I suppose Pearl will want to stay on here, now she’s found
some friends.”
 “Well—” Meg looked surprised “—were you expecting to leave soon?”

“We were discussing it this evening. That’s why Cecile and I were so late.
Max really feels we should shoot the early part of the movie in Spain.”

“Oh,” said Meg, who had long ago given up trying to follow the
ramifications of the plot. “When do you propose to go to Spain?”

“Toward the end of next week.”

“And take Pearl with you?” Meg could not hide the fact that she thought
this most undesirable for the little girl.

“Well ... that’s just it: It doesn’t seem like a good idea, does it?” Meg
asked about her schooling.

“Oh, that’s not for three or four weeks yet,” explained Felicity, refusing to
contemplate such a distant circumstance. “She goes to boarding school, of
course, and they never begin until late in September. It’s what to do with
her during the rest of the month that’s concerning me.”

“Well—” began Meg.

“Yes, I know what you’re going to say,” cried Felicity, her face clearing
instantly. “And I quite agree with you, Meg dear. The ideal thing would be
for her to stay here with you, if you’d be an angel and take on the
responsibility.”

“That wasn’t really what I was going to say,” Meg told her with a smile.
“I was going to say that perhaps your brother—”

“Dick? Oh, Dick couldn’t take her on,” Felicity declared. “Anyway, he’ll
be in London most of the time, now that we’ve more or less finished
filming here. And I think Pearl should stay on in Purworth, don’t you?”

The conviction was rapidly gaining on Meg that this was what Pearl was
going to do in any case and she might as well capitulate now as later. At the
same time, with Dick in London and Felicity somewhere in Spain, the task
which she had so lightly assumed was taking on a much more responsible
character.

“How long would you expect to be away?” she asked, feeling

immediately that this already sounded perilously like capitulation. To
Felicity it sounded exactly like capitulation, for she exclaimed gratefully,
“You are a dear, Meg! And you relieve my mind immensely. I don’t
imagine I shall be gone for longer than a couple of weeks, if all goes well.”

Meg refrained with difficulty from asking what would happen if all did
not go well.
 Pearl seemed delighted with the arrangement when she learned about it
next morning at breakfast. Felicity smiled very sweetly, as though she had
especially thought up the plan to please her little girl.

It was Dick, coming unexpectedly early to have his sister sign some
papers, who cast the only cold water on the scheme.

“You’re asking Meg to take on a devil of a lot,” he declared. “It’s one

thing for her to play glorified governess to the child while you’re around to
take final responsibility. It’s quite another thing to be in sole charge while
you’re out of the country.”

“You’ll be here,” his sister pointed out calmly.

“But in London. Possibly even abroad for one or two days.”

“Meg doesn’t mind. Do you, dear?” Felicity appealed to her confidently.

And, since Pearl was present during this conversation and was already
widening her eyes in nervous anxiety, Meg could only say calmly, “No, I
don’t mind in the least. Pearl and I will be perfectly all right on our own,
and we’ll have lots of fun together.”

She saw the child’s expression relax into a satisfied smile, and she felt it
was worth any minor anxiety on her part to have the little girl feel secure
once more.
 During the afternoon, her father and Claire came to say goodbye. They
were returning home the following morning.

Meg was sorry to have to part from her father, but as far as her stepmother
was concerned, she wished they need never meet again.

Pearl too was sorry to say goodbye to Dr. Greenway. She insisted on
taking him off to say goodbye to her pet rabbit also, so Meg was reluctantly
left alone with Claire who sat in a garden chair and looked around her with
a satisfied smile.

She did not offer to engage in conversation, and Meg resentfully told
herself that there was no reason why she herself should take on any social
burdens where Claire was concerned. So the silence lengthened out
between them, until suddenly Meg spoke, “I suppose you sent Leigh here
yesterday.”

“My dear, he didn’t need any sending,” Claire turned that cool, infuriating
little smile on her. “I did ask him if he were going to have it out with you,
but he told me to mind my own business.” She gave a tolerant little shrug,
“However I guessed he meant to come. He was pretty mad, I imagine?”

She asked the question with a careless curiosity which suggested that she
had every right to a reply. And, although Meg was sorely tempted to use
Leigh’s form of retort, in her turn, instead, she found herself saying,
 “Yes. He took a very exaggerated view of the whole thing, I thought.”

Claire laughed slightly.

“Leigh’s a bit naive where women are concerned, in spite of his worldly
air. He sets a high standard in friendship himself, and then takes it hard
when he doesn’t find the same thing in others.” Her tone so clearly implied
that he had been foolish to suppose he would find it in Meg that there
seemed to be no way of continuing this conversation on civil lines. So Meg
pressed her lips together and remained silent. After a moment or two
Claire, with a deceptive air of candor, said, “I’m not going to pretend I’m
sorry, Meg. As I told you before, I don’t think you’re the right girl for
Leigh.”

“You may find it difficult to believe me, but I don’t either,” replied Meg
dryly.

“Well, that’s fine.” Claire got to her feet as Dr. Greenway and Pearl came
around the side of the house, “I hope that’s the way Leigh himself feels
when next you meet.”

“We’re not likely to meet,” Meg informed her coldly. “There’s no reason
why we should. For my part, I hope I never see him again.”

“Really?” Claire gave a sceptical little laugh. “Shall I tell him that?”
 “I really don’t care what you tell him,” Meg retorted.

Then Pearl and her father came up, and they said goodbye once more. The
Greenways drove away, leaving Meg feeling forlorn and depressed.

Pearl must have noticed this. In her childish but charming way, she set out
to be amusing and cheerful. When Felicity came in earlier than usual and
announced that she was going to an informal party at the home of Max
Trenton’s relations, she exclaimed, “Oh, Mommy, take Meg too. She’s
feeling very sad because her father’s gone away, and that horrid stepmother
didn’t once say how pleased she’d be if Meg came home sometimes.”

“Pearl darling—” Meg was both touched and taken aback “—you mustn’t
say such things.”

“But it’s true. You are feeling miserable, aren’t you?” And she snuggled
up against Meg with a friendly air that was extraordinarily consoling.

“Well—” began Meg. But Felicity broke in goodhumoredly, “I’ll take

you, of course. Pearl’s quite right. You probably need cheering up.”

“Thank you, but I couldn’t think of coming. I haven’t been invited, and I
don’t even know the people,” Meg protested.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not that sort of party,” Felicity declared. “And
anyway, I can take anyone I like,” she added, with her usual charming
certainty that it was for her to make her own rules. “Max says it’s an
enormous house, and I’m sure no one really decided how many of us from
the company were coming. One more or less won’t matter. You’re my
secretary or companion or something, if it comes to that.”

Meg was still not entirely convinced, but, as usual, Felicity had her way.
And when Max Trenton came later to fetch her, he too insisted that of
course Meg must come, if she would like to.

The house in which the party was held was one of the large, solid country
places which are dotted all over the north of England—relics of an era,
when fortunes were large and income tax was low.

Meg guessed that, at the time when it was built, there had probably been a
staff of maids and butlers. Now, although there were every sign of wealth,
entertaining was informal. The guests drifted in and out of the large,
handsome rooms at will, and supper was set on a long buffet table in a
room overlooking the terrace and garden.

Felicity was, of course, welcomed most cordially by the Trentons, but

Meg too was welcomed and made to feel that she was a charming addition
to the party.

One of the daughters of the house, who introduced herself as Laura,

whisked her off immediately, to have something to eat and drink, declaring
that “one always feels more sociable over plates and glasses.”
 “Are you in movies?” she inquired, as she helped Meg liberally to the
food.

“Oh no!” Meg laughed protestingly. “I couldn’t act to save my life. I look
after Miss Manners’ little girl. And your cousin kindly asked me along this
evening.”

This was streamlining the form of invitation somewhat, but Laura Trenton
said immediately, “I’m so glad he did. She’s lovely, isn’t she? Felicity
Manners, I mean.”

“Yes, and she’s a darling too,” Meg replied warmly.

“Not temperamental?” Laura Trenton looked half amused, half inquiring,

as she handed Meg her well-filled plate.

“No more so than anyone else who lives on her nerves and provides
entertainment for an exacting public,” Meg declared loyally. “I think if
anyone can provide a unique performance of any sort, it’s asking too much
that she should also switch to being a cosy little housewife as well. The
gifts required for one thing are totally different from those required for the
other.”

“You’re a star-gazer,” Laura Trenton declared goodhumoredly. “But I

know what you mean. I feel the same. I like my stars to be unusual. Maybe
that’s why I don’t mind when Max is a bit moody,” she added with seeming
irrelevance. And she sighed slightly.

She’s in love with Max, thought Meg, with a flash of intuition. Oh dear, I
hope he and Felicity don’t decide that they’re made for each other.

Aloud, she said, “He’s a brilliant producer, isn’t he?” Not that she had the
slightest idea whether he was or not, but she saw that the girl was dying to
talk about him.

“No; he’s not really,” was the unexpected reply. “He’s talented, and he’s a
perfect darling. But he’s just going through the arty stage which his
sensitive type often does. Oddly enough, what he’s really brilliant at is
business, and my father would very much like to have him in the family
firm. But he won’t hear of it. I think he just has to work this artistic streak
out of his system first.” Again she sighed involuntarily.

“I expect he will,” Meg said soothingly. “Unless one is madly good at

something, one tends to return to one’s own natural element.”

“Ye-es, I suppose you’re right. But—” Laura glanced at the lovely,

glowing Felicity “—I only hope he doesn’t get hurt first.”

Meg privately thought Max was tougher than Laura seemed to feel, but
she didn’t suggest it. Instead she remarked that Felicity was basically not
unkind.
 Laura laughed at that. “You do have a nice mixture of humor and
tolerance in your attitude to your employer,” she declared. “I suppose that’s
the way one has to be if one wants to get along with show people.”

“I suppose,” Meg said. “Though I haven’t had much experience of this

life yet. I’ve only been in Felicity’s household for a week or two. I must say
it’s fascinating, if a little unpredictable. I’ll be left in charge when they go
to Spain next week, and though I don’t really mind the responsibility, I
have a feeling that she might decide to go off around the world suddenly.
The first I’d hear of it, would be an affectionate cable from Hong Kong.
Still I expect I’ll cope all right.”

“Are you staying in the district?” Laura inquired.

“Oh yes. At the charming house we have in Purworth.”

“Then we must see something of each other.” Laura spoke cordially.

“I’d love to,” Meg said sincerely, for she liked this girl unreservedly, and
it would feel good to have a friend in the district.

Then Laura was called away to attend to other guests and Meg turned and
slipped out of one of the nearby French windows.

From the wide stone terrace she was able to run down a short flight of
steps into the garden.
 She was not the only person out there, but the one or two couples were
intent on their own affairs, and it was not difficult to choose a tree-shaded
path which led to comparative solitude.

Meg slackened her pace as soon as she was alone, and her thoughts turned
to the break with Leigh. It was one of the most shattering experiences she
had ever had. What was the inference to be drawn from that?

It wasn’t only that horrible scene in the garden, Meg thought, with
reluctant self-frankness. It was the whole experience, beginning with the
wretched business at the ball. In a queer and frightening way, absolutely
nothing had seemed the same since.

She was so shocked by the magnitude of that discovery that she stopped
dead in her tracks.

He couldn’t be as important to me as that, she told herself. Not so

important that he could simply change everything. It just doesn’t make
sense.

But it did make sense. Like the shining pieces of a kaleidoscope, her
thoughts and convictions seemed to shift, forming a fresh pattern. The
elements were the same, but the whole was alarmingly different.

His good opinion—now irretrievably lost—seemed in retrospect dear and

important; his provocative but oddly attractive friendliness, something
unique and valuable.

It was nonsense to say she was indifferent to Leigh, or to suppose that the
rift between them was not important. She had been deluding herself. The
truth was that he was of immense importance to her, and to be alienated
from him was almost as painful as the fact that Claire had virtually closed
her home against her.
 CHAPTER EIGHT
Slowly Meg began to walk on once more. Presently she realized that she
must have been walking in a semicircle, for she came out into the open
again close to the other end of the terrace. She would have hesitated to go
into the house once more and take up the burden of being sociable, but as
she paused, Felicity leaned over the coping of the terrace and called, “Meg
dear, come here. I’ve got some good news for you.”

Obediently, Meg came nearer and stood just below the terrace, looking up
at the lovely, smiling face above her.

“What is it?” she inquired, on that note of indulgence which she used with
both Pearl and Felicity impartially.

“Something that will relieve your mind,” Felicity declared. “I don’t know
why I didn’t think of it before. It’s the obvious solution.” She paused to
look back over her shoulder for an instant and laugh at someone who was
still out of Meg’s range of vision.

Then she turned back to Meg and said, “You won’t have to take sole
responsibility for Pearl when I’m away in Spain, after all. I’ve just arranged
that Leigh shall keep an eye on you both.”
 “Leigh!” exclaimed Meg, divided between consternation and a sort of
wild excitement. “Oh, but—”

“She’s not crazy about the idea,” observed Felicity, speaking over her
shoulder again with obvious amusement. “I thought you were more
popular, Leigh.”

And, to Meg’s extreme confusion, Leigh came into view, leaned his arms
on the balustrade and, looking down at her, observed politely, “Claire gave
me your message. But, in the present circumstances, I’m afraid we’ll have
to postpone carrying out our joint wishes for a few weeks.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never gave Claire any message
... Oh!” She clapped her hand to her mouth suddenly and flushed scarlet.
She had remembered Claire’s malicious offer to inform Leigh that she
never wanted to see him again.

“Well, I see you remember now,” he remarked dryly.

“I didn’t mean—” began Meg. But he had already straightened up again,

as though everything worth saying had been said.

“What on earth are you two talking about?” Felicity inquired with a
laugh. “Come on into the house, Meg dear. It’s getting chilly out here.”
 She turned and walked toward the house, while Meg slowly mounted the
stone steps to the terrace. At the top, she found Leigh waiting for her.

“I ... I didn’t know you were coming here this evening,” she stammered.

“I wasn’t. I just dropped in to see Jack Trenton on business, and found the
party in progress. I’m sorry about this arrangement. But I couldn’t very
well refuse when Felicity asked me.”

“Oh; don’t apologize!” exclaimed Meg unhappily. “I ... I’m very glad to
have you look after Pearl while—”

“Felicity’s suggested that I look after you both,” he observed reflectively.

“I don’t need looking after,” she said stiffly. With the knowledge that had
come to her in the garden just now, it was difficult to talk to him with any
semblance of composure.

“Not even when you play Cinderella?” he inquired.

“Leigh—” she turned to him, with sudden resolution “—if you and I are
to co-operate in looking after Pearl during the next few weeks, it’s no good
your needling me like this. It will be horrible for both of us and probably
make the child uncomfortably aware that something is wrong. If you can’t
manage to behave decently to me—”
 “This ... from you?” He raised his eyebrows slightly.

“Yes ... this from me,” she retorted. “You’re just letting your wounded
vanity run away with you. And it isn’t like you. It’s small, and you aren’t
like that. I’m sorry about the ball, but I wasn’t as much to blame as you
seem to think. The whole thing’s been absurdly exaggerated, and I’m not
going to accept that any more!

“And as for that nasty crack about receiving my message from Claire,”
she rushed on, before he could interrupt “I’m not going to feel like a
criminal about that either! There was nothing deliberate about my remark
that I hoped I’d never see you again. I was just blowing my top because I
felt so mad about the whole wretched business. People say that sort of thing
a dozen times a week without meaning it and—”

“Didn’t you mean it?”

The cool inquiry was sufficient to stop her eloquence.

“N ... no,” she said, in a much more subdued tone. “I didn’t mean it ...
literally.”

“Then you won’t mind seeing me again?”

“N ... no, of course not.”

 For a moment she saw a flicker of his old, half mocking smile, and it did
the most extraordinary things to her.

“In that case,” he told her, “I shall be happy to take on the task of looking
after both of you.”

And he turned and went into the house, leaving Meg to follow more
slowly, wondering, in the slight chill which succeeded the fires of her
indignance whether she had improved the situation between herself and
Leigh or made it worse.

The party did not go on very late, as several of the guests, particularly
among the film contingent, had to make an early start the next morning.

“It’s been a lovely party,” Felicity declared charmingly to her hosts. “And
I’m so glad I found you here, Leigh dear.” She patted his arm in an
affectionately possessive way that gave Meg a queer little stab. “Now I
won’t worry in the least about Pearl or Meg. I know you’ll look after them
perfectly while I’m away.”

“I’ll do my best,” Leigh assured her gravely.

“Perhaps you could bring them to the station to see me off. We’re going
by train to London and then flying from there. And it would be nice to have
Pearl there.”
 A dreamy look came into her eyes which meant that she was picturing a
press photograph of herself saying goodbye to Pearl from a train window.

“If you’re leaving on a weekday, I might not be available,” Leigh

informed her practically. “And in any case—”

“We’re leaving on Sunday,” Felicity assured him.

“Sunday?” Meg looked startled. “I thought you planned to go the end of

next week?”

“Oh, we’ve rearranged the program entirely,” Felicity explained airily.

“Max feels that the sooner we get over there and start shooting, the better.
And because everything is so satisfactorily arranged this end—” once more
she lingeringly touched on Leigh’s arm “—there’s no need for us to waste
time. So, Leigh dear, if you’ll drive Meg and Pearl over to Newcastle on
Sunday—”

Meg followed the rest of it with half of her mind. She knew that things
would eventually work out exactly as Felicity wanted them to. The point at
which Meg’s imagination stuck was the scene after Felicity and Cecile—
and presumably Max and Dick too—departed. She and Pearl would then be
left alone with Leigh with the rest of Sunday in front of them.

During the next few days, the charming house in Purworth became a
center of activity, with everyone preparing to dispatch Felicity on the
Spanish trip.

Evidently both Cecile and Pearl were used to this sort of thing, and Meg
cheerfully fell in with the general pattern. Fortunately, she was a good
seamstress, an excellent packer and an unflustered organizer. All these
talents were called on to the full, and even Cecile observed, “For an
Englishwoman, Mademoiselle is very neat with her fingers. One would
almost think she had gone to school in France.”

No more was said about Leigh’s guardianship, and Meg managed to push
the thought of the future into the back of her mind. But on Saturday
evening, when the last list had been checked and the last trunk packed,
Felicity said, “I phoned Leigh today. He’ll be coming to pick us all up
about ten o’clock tomorrow.”

“Leigh?” Pearl glanced up, with a bright and pleased expression. “Is he
coming? Oh, Mommy—” her face fell suddenly “—he’s not going to Spain
too, is he?”

“No, you silly child, of course not. What would Leigh do in Spain?”
inquired Felicity. “He’s going to drive Cecile and I to Newcastle, where
we’ll get the train to London. Max and Dick will meet us at the station.
And when we’ve gone, I daresay Leigh will take you and Meg out to lunch
and—”

“Oh, how lovely! Did you hear that, Meg?”

 “Yes, I heard,” Meg said.

“Meg knows all about it,” Felicity gave that secret smile of hers. “She
was there when I arranged for Leigh to look after you two while I’m away.”

“Look after Meg and me?” Pearl looked even more delighted. “D’you
mean he’s coming here to live?”

“No, no.” Felicity looked amused. “One must set limits even to the most
comprehensive of plans. But Leigh has undertaken to keep an eye on you
and Meg, and I expect you’ll be seeing a good deal of each other.”

“Oh, goody!” cried Pearl. “You never told me, Meg. Did you want to keep
it a secret, to cheer me up when Mommy went?”

Quite untruthfully, Meg said that this was more or less the idea. And after
that it was useless to try to push into the back of her mind the realization
that she would be seeing Leigh most days in the immediate future.

Leigh arrived punctually the following morning, and Pearl received him
with uninhibited enthusiasm.

“Meg didn't tell me until last night,” she explained. “She said it was such
a lovely secret that she thought she’d keep it until the very last minute to
cheer me up.”
 “Did she really?” Leigh’s glance traveled beyond the little girl and came
to rest on Meg’s slightly flushed face.

“That wasn’t quite the wording,” she said curtly, which seemed to amuse
him.

“I’m flattered if the general meaning is correct,” he replied lightly. It

suddenly came to her that he was speaking much more in the old, teasing
way than in the hard, contemptuous tone he had used with her recently.

The discovery moved her so much that she felt tears come to her eyes,
and she had to turn away quickly and pretend that she was helping Cecile
with the luggage.

Soon Leigh’s big car was packed and they drove away.

Dick was waiting for them at the station in Newcastle, with every detail
arranged. A few discreet photographers were present as well.

“Quite a family party,” one of the photographers said.

“It is almost a family party,” Pearl agreed. “Now, if Leigh—”

“A slightly extended one,” put in Felicity, smilingly but quickly. “Dear

Meg is not absolutely part of the family, but—”
 “—Could be made so,” finished Dick unexpectedly. “Sometimes I think it
would be a good idea, Meg. What do you say?”

He was laughing as he said it but, to her surprise, she saw that his
handsome eyes were unusually serious for a moment as he looked at her.
She just smiled back at him and said lightly, “If this is an invitation to
honorary membership, I accept gladly.”

Then Max arrived, and when everyone realized how late it was getting
there was a great flurry of kissing and goodbyes. In the midst of it, Meg
found herself being kissed by Dick, with more than his usual light charm,
and he whispered, “Honorary membership was a good idea on the spur of
the moment, but you know that wasn’t what I meant, don’t you?”

“But, Dick dear—” She hardly knew what to say. “You can’t possibly—”

“Dick! Di-ick!” called Felicity from the window of her compartment.

“We want you in the picture. Quick! They’re going to blow the whistle.”

He muttered something ungentlemanly about his sister, but Meg

whispered quickly, “Please go, Dick. We can’t possibly be serious at this
moment.”

“I could,” he retorted, but with his gay smile again. “I’ll be back soon,
Meg. Don’t forget me.”
 Then he jumped into the train, obligingly put his arm around his sister and
leaned out the window at her, as Pearl reached up to blow a final kiss.
Cameras clicked, the guard’s whistle gave a shrill blast and the train began
to move.

“Well, it doesn’t look as though anyone wants to photograph us,”

remarked Leigh, putting an arm round Pearl. “Shall we go?”

They began to move towards the exit, and Pearl asked in a subdued tone,
“Where are we going?”

Even the most self-possessed little girls are not proof against the
melancholy effect of a departing train if someone on board is important.
“What would you like to do?” inquired Leigh kindly.

“It depends...” Pearl sucked in her cheeks thoughtfully. “How much time
do we have?”

“My day is yours,” Leigh assured her. “And it looks,” he added, as they
came out of the comparative gloom of the station into the bright sunshine,
“as though it’s going to be a very good day too.”

“Well, then, could we go to Alnwick and see the castle?” begged Pearl.
“I’ve never been as far as that, and Mrs. Parker says that on a fine day it
makes you gasp to look at it.”
 “I don’t know why not,” Leigh said good humoredly. “I endorse Mrs.
Parker’s view. Would you like that, Meg?”

“Very much.” She smiled as she came out of a little daydream. For the
second time that morning, he seemed amused by her. And, as Pearl ran on
ahead to the car, he said softly and a little mischievously, “I didn’t know
that Dick Manners could make you look so starry-eyed.”

“Dick?” She looked surprised. “Oh—” she colored and laughed. “Don’t
be absurd. He ... we were just fooling.”

“Is that so?” said Leigh Sontigan politely.

It was a drive which Meg remembered for the rest of her life, although
afterwards she could never decide how much of the magic was due to the,
glorious scenes around her and how much to the company in which she
traveled.

After they reached Morpeth, Leigh branched off toward the coast, taking
them through beautiful leafy lanes to Bothal, with its ruined castle casting
its romantic reflection in the waters of the Wansbeck. Then to Creswell,
with its old pele-tower (and its legend of the White Lady) and around the
superb sweep of Druridge Bay.

Here Leigh stopped the car, so that they could walk for a few minutes on
the firm sand, revel in the fresh breeze from the sea, and even fancy that,
where the tide was retreating, they could trace the outlines of the ancient
forest of oak which he told them was buried there.

Then they got back into the car and drove northward past Hauxley Haven
to Amble, and inland a mile or so to Warkworth, half slumbering in the
noonday sun below the ruined castle where Harry Hotspur once made plans
to shake a king from his throne.

They had lunched at Alnwick, almost in the shadow of Hotspur Tower.

On Pearl’s insistence, Leigh searched his memory for all he could recall of
the history of the ancient town, once a focal point of border warfare.

He had, Meg discovered, the most engaging talent for evoking the past.
She, as well as Pearl, hung on every word. Never, in Meg’s experience, had
he been more entertaining or more, indulgently friendly.

That he should humor Pearl and try to answer her questions was perhaps
natural, but Meg too received the same measure of good-humored
attention.

She was so happy about the change in his attitude toward her that she
would have been glad to hear him recite the alphabet, as long as he gave
her that occasional quick smile.

Later, in the castle, he proved to be an excellent guide. When they finally

drove homeward—this time by the moorland route so that Meg and Pearl
could see the great stretches of heather and bracken which rise in
undulating waves to the far edge of the horizon—the brightness of the day
was over and the late afternoon sun could only pierce the heavy clouds here
and there with long shafts of light.

There was a slight chill in the air, so they stopped for tea at an inn, then
drove on rapidly to Purworth. They arrived home just as the first drops of
rain began to spatter on the windshield of the car.

“But it waited until we got home,” Pearl declared. “The rain didn’t spoil
our day. Oh, it’s been lovely, hasn’t it, Meg?”

“Absolutely wonderful,” Meg agreed. And then, a little diffidently to

Leigh, “I can’t thank you enough for ... for everything.”

She hoped he would know that she was also thanking him for being
friendly again, and he smiled slightly as he said, “Well, I promised Felicity
I would look after you, remember.”

He refused their invitation to come in, saying that he had a dinner

engagement in Newcastle. But he promised to come again soon, and made
sure that Meg had his telephone number before he left.

Pearl seemed unaffected by the silence of the house, and continued to talk
about the wonderful day they had had, particularly about Leigh’s good
humor and kindness.
 “I think he’s a darling, don’t you?” she demanded.

Before so youthful and uninhibited an audience, Meg said, “Yes, I do.”

“He was especially nice today,” Pearl declared. “I think he was happy,
don’t you?”

“Why yes, I think he was,” agreed Meg, struck, not for the first time, by
the child’s perspicacity.

“I think he hasn’t been very happy about something ... or someone—”

Pearl went on thoughtfully. “And now things are changed, and it’s all right
again. Do you think that’s what it is, Meg?”

“Well—” Meg laughed and then bit her lip “—I suppose it could be that
... yes.”

“And I think I know why he’s happy again,” said Pearl, nodding her head
reflectively.

“Do you?” Meg smiled at her, half touched and half amused at the idea
that she should receive confirmation of her own happy belief from such an
innocent quarter. “Why do you think he was?”

“Well, didn’t you see that Mommy wasn’t at all friendly with Max this
morning? She isn’t going to marry him.” The little girl’s tone dismissed the
idea with scorn. “She’s terribly nice to Leigh again. She even trusted him to
look after us, just as though he were part of the family. He knows what that
means, and so do I, Meg. You’ll see ... Mommy will marry Leigh after all,
and he knows it. That’s why he was so happy today.”
 CHAPTER NINE
Summoning her self-control Meg tried not to let Pearl know the impact of
her words. She managed to smile stiffly and even to say, “That sounds like
wishful thinking to me, Pearl. I—I don’t think it’s good to guess about
these things in advance.”

“I think it’s fun guessing,” Pearl replied naively. “And my guess is that
Mommy will marry Leigh in the end. I think it’s a nice guess.”

Meg turned away. There was nothing she could say. She felt as though
someone had struck her heart a blow.

She also heard an inner voice whispering, “What a fool you’ve been, Meg
Greenway! All day you’ve been flattering yourself that Leigh cares about
you ... is happy in your company. Even a little girl like Pearl could see the
real reason for his lightheartedness. And she’s right, of course. It was a
belief that he hadn’t lost Felicity after all which made him so happy that he
could spare a little good humor for you.”

She was so busy calling herself a fool that she could hide from herself the
feeling that she was also the most miserable girl alive. And while Pearl was
with her, the necessity of keeping up appearances helped her to avoid the
full realization of her unhappiness.
 But, once Pearl had gone to bed and she was entirely alone with her own
thoughts, Meg could no longer put off the miserable truth.

Leigh still loved Felicity. It was as simple as that. Utterly obvious too,
unless one were blinded by one’s own absurd hopes. That Felicity had
casually brushed him off for a while in favor of Max Trenton had hardly
affected Leigh’s attitude at all. He had not changed.

It serves me right! she thought bitterly. People who dream like that
deserve to be disillusioned. She shed a few tears for her vanished hopes
before pulling herself together and vowing that never again would she
allow herself to jump to foolish conclusions just because it would be so
utterly wonderful if they were right.

Life assumed a simple pattern during the next day or two. Mrs. Parker
came in each morning to clean. Meg herself did the cooking. Since she was
an excellent cook, she thoroughly enjoyed this side of her work. Besides,
Pearl was an enthusiastic sampler, and even Mrs. Parker, on the days when
she stayed to lunch, conceded that “them bit messes have their points,
though Parker wouldn’t look at them. Good plain cooking for him or he’s
not fit to live with.”

On both Monday and Tuesday Leigh telephoned to make sure that

everything was all right. Meg managed to speak naturally and steadily to
him.
 She kept the idea that he would eventually become Pearl’s stepfather in
the forefront of her mind, because somehow it helped more than anything
else to re-establish a sensible attitude. Even when he announced that he
would be driving over to see them on Wednesday evening, she contrived to
keep her voice pleasant and casual as she said, “Then won’t you come in
time to have an early dinner with Pearl and me?”

“Unless you’d prefer me to take you both out?”

“Thank you, but that disrupts Pearl’s bedtime,” Meg pointed out. “If you
don’t mind dining early, it would be better if you came here, I think.”

“Very well. Only don’t go to any special trouble on my behalf,” he said.

“We’ll treat you like one of the family,” Meg promised lightly. She smiled
to herself with pleasure as she replaced the receiver. The thought of
cooking for Leigh gave her a queer little sense of satisfaction impossible to
describe or explain.

Pearl too highly approved the arrangement, and followed Meg around the
kitchen, taking an immense interest in all that was being prepared.

As though it were a family affair, thought Meg involuntarily, and she

caught her breath on a slight sigh of envy for people who did this daily for
those they loved.
 But when Leigh finally arrived and she served the meal in the pleasant
dining room, there was no one in the world whom she envied.

It was all so simple, so unsensational. Just good food, a hungry little girl,
an equally hungry and appreciative man, a pleasant room and a general air
of satisfaction, but Meg would not have exchanged it for anything else life
could offer.

“You’re a wonderful cook, Meg,” Leigh declared. “And I’m afraid you
went to a good deal of trouble, in spite of what I said.”

“Oh, no,” Meg assured him, with a smile.

Pearl hastened to explain. “Meg says cooking is no trouble at all if it’s for
people you like.”

“Charmingly put.” Leigh stirred his coffee. “I think she must have meant
you, Pearl.”

“She meant you too,” Pearl assured him naively. “Didn’t you Meg?”

“I like cooking in any case,” Meg said evasively. “I always have. I miss
not doing it at home, so this was quite a treat for me.”

He laughed softly and she knew he had been aware of the evasion.
 Pearl was allowed to stay up half an hour later than usual, but when her
bedtime came, Leigh showed no signs of departing. In fact, he
unexpectedly offered to help Meg wash the dishes. When she refused, he
laughingly allowed Pearl to push him into a comfortable chair by the
window.

“Come up and say goodnight to me in ten minutes,” Pearl begged.

“Very well,” he promised lazily. “Call me when you’re ready.” Then he

reached for the evening paper, and settled himself with the air of a man
very much at home.

Meg went out to the kitchen and busied herself there, not able to decide
whether she wanted him to stay or go. If he went, it would all be over. But
if he stayed, how would she talk to him?

What did he really feel about her now? Resentment still, because of the
unhappy business of the ball? Or was that forgiven now, and the resentment
replaced by a good-natured indifference? She found it difficult to decide
which would be more painful.

Presently she went upstairs. Pearl had been dawdling, but she skipped into
bed with a guilty squeak when Meg appeared, and allowed herself to be
kissed and tucked in.

“Leigh hasn’t gone yet, has he?” she asked anxiously.

 “No.”

“Well, will you tell him he can come up and say goodnight to me now,
please?”

“Yes, I’ll tell him,” Meg promised. And when she went downstairs, she
looked into the room and said as casually as possible, “Pearl’s ready to say
goodnight. Don’t let her keep you though. She’s in a time-wasting mood.”

“All right.” He laughed and went upstairs two steps at a time, while Meg
returned to the kitchen, pretending that she still had things to do there.

She heard him come downstairs again in a few minutes and go into the
living room. And though she hung about quite a long time, he made no
move to come out and say goodnight.

There was nothing else she could do. She fetched some mending from her
room and went into the living room.

He looked up from his paper and said, “You should have let me help you.
There must have been a lot to do.”

Her domestic pride made her insist, “Not at all. I was making some things
ready for the morning.”
 “Were you trying to avoid me?” he inquired, so casually that it was a
moment before she grasped the significance of his words.

Then she said, “Certainly not,” with more emphasis than was necessary,
and blushed deeply as she pretended to search for a necessary spool of
thread.

“Well, I see you were. I’m sorry, Meg. I’ve created an awkward situation
between us by making that ridiculous fuss about the ball, haven’t I? Is there
any way of making it all right?”

“Oh, Leigh—” she dropped her hands in her lap and looked across at him
“—you mustn’t blame yourself. I did behave badly, even if my part did get
exaggerated. Any difficulty between us is at least as much my fault.”

“I don’t think we need argue who’s to blame.” He smiled at her. “Do you
suppose we could just wash the whole thing out and decide that
explanations aren’t called for?”

“Do you ... want to?” she said slowly.

“Very much so. I hate quarreling with people.”

She was not entirely happy to have it put on such a general plane, but
reconciliation on almost any terms would be wonderful.
 “I ... I’d be glad to be ... friends again,” she assured him. “But even
though you say explanations aren’t called for, I ... I would just like to say
that I was ... rather stampeded into doing what I did. It wasn’t a deliberate
attempt to deceive you. It was more that I ... I agreed to appear much more
friendly than I had been, and then found—” she cleared her throat
nervously.

“Found what, Meg?”

“That it wasn’t really pretence,” she explained huskily.

“Well ... that’s very handsome,” he declared. “And makes it possible for
us to be natural with each other again. On my part, I must say I think I was
an ass about it all. It was a minor matter, anyway and by now has lost its
significance.”

“Has it?” she looked at him a little doubtfully.

“Yes, of course,” he said easily.

Meg realized with a chill that of course the incident had lost any real
significance now. If Felicity were really turning from Max to Leigh again
why should he make heavy weather of the way she had treated him during
that other unhappy period?
 It all fits in, Meg told herself. Just take it quietly and with dignity. You’re
friends again. And very welcome that is.

So she said in a matter-of-fact but cordial voice, “I’m glad you forced the
issue like this, Leigh. It’s so much nicer and more sensible to be on
civilized terms, particularly as we’re more or less related.”

“I thought you always resisted relationship,” he teased her.

“Well—” she made herself laugh “—it is there, even if I didn’t want to
emphasize it at first, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” he agreed. “For good or ill.”

“For good or ill?” she bantered. “Do you think it has its undesirable side,
then?”

“Well, it certainly started me off at a disadvantage in your eyes, didn’t it?”

“We’re ruling all that out too,” she told him firmly. “I was the silly one
that time.”

“We are getting things sorted out, aren’t we?” He too looked amused.
Then he added earnestly, “What are your plans for the future, Meg?”

“I’m not quite sure.” She smiled slightly.

 “You wouldn’t stay on indefinitely with Felicity?”

“Oh, no!” she cried quickly, suddenly visualizing somehow fitting into
the household after Leigh and Felicity were married. He looked surprised at
her tone of protest.

“I thoughts you liked Felicity,” he said.

“I do! I think I quite love her, in spite of her occasionally maddening

ways. But there just wouldn’t be a permanent place for me with her.”

“She might make one. Or at any rate, make one for the time being. You’ve
made a big difference to Pearl’s life, for one thing.”

“Pearl will be going back to boarding school soon. And then there
wouldn’t really be any reason for me to stay here.”

“Felicity might like to have you around.”

“Felicity has Cecile for all practical purposes,” Meg retorted, “and is well
able to look after herself in most other respects. Besides—” she forced
herself to speak coolly “—she might marry again.”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “She might marry again, I suppose.” And then he
smiled to himself in a thoughtful way and fell silent.
 She longed to think of a clever leading question which would fathom his
real views. Instead she went on with her mending and pretended that
nothing significant had been said.

The silence was not uncomfortable. In fact, it was curiously

companionable. It was with a regretful sigh that he said, “I must be going,
Meg. I hope I haven’t taken up too much of your time.”

“Oh, no.” With difficulty she resisted the desire to assure him he was
welcome to all the time she had.

The next day there was a long letter from Felicity. She gave an amusing
account of the journey and a shrewd assessment of her surroundings.

“Give Leigh my love,” she instructed Meg casually, “and tell him that,
pleasant though it is to have one’s hand kissed every five minutes, I would
give a lot at the moment for a dash of his common sense and, above all, his
British efficiency.”

It seemed that it was impossible to stick to a rigid program in the Spanish

never-never-land in which she now found herself; consequently she had no
idea when the filming would be finished.

“I think you’ll have to get Pearl off to school on your own, Meg dear,”
Felicity wrote. “But if there’s any difficulty, get in touch with Dick. He
should still be in London, I think.”
 “How like Mommy,” said Pearl indulgently, when Meg read her a slightly
edited version of the letter. “But it’s all right, Meg. I know what’s necessary
for me to take back, and where I have to go and everything. I didn’t give
the list to Mommy when I came home for vacation. I kept it.”

During the next few days they went through the list together. Meg
checked Pearl’s wardrobe, and busied herself with nametags and other
minor matters relevant to Pearl’s return to school.

“There’s plenty of time, really,” Pearl told her kindly. “You should see the
way Cecile usually has to run around at the last minute.”

“I have a rooted objection to running around at the last minute,” Meg said
firmly.

Pearl laughed and observed, in the manner of grown-up speaking to a

child, “You are sweet. Uncle Dick was right—we ought to keep you in the
family somehow.”

This kind of observation invariably left Meg speechless. Although she

could cope with every childlike facet of Pearl, she was floored by the
grown-up way she sometimes talked.

It was inevitable, of course, with a child who lived such a curious life, but
Meg found her most pathetic then. It was when Pearl sounded like a
sophisticated 18 that Meg most wanted to hug her and treat her like a baby.
 How I wish I could stay with her indefinitely! she thought. At least be part
of the pattern of her life. I know what Dick meant when he said I create an
oasis of calm and sanity in Felicity's crazy world. It’s nothing very clever,
it's just that I’m intensely normal ... and that’s a novelty in this family.

As though she had been thinking along the same lines, Pearl said
suddenly, “You make everything seem simple and undramatic, Meg. You
won’t go away from here when I go to school, will you?”

“From this house, do you mean? That depends on your mother my dear. If
she doesn’t intend to come back here herself, she would hardly keep the
place for me, after you have gone back to school, you know.”

“Then where will you go?” asked Pearl quickly.

“I really don’t know, Pearl. I haven’t worked things out,” Meg admitted.
“I suppose I’ll go on from where I left off when I met you. In other words,
look for a job to keep me in reasonable comfort.”

“Nothing to do with our family, you mean?”

“Darling, once you’re back at school, my reason for being in this family
ceases to exist.”

“But I’ll see you again, won’t I?”

 “Of course! That’s just a question of being friends,” Meg explained
soothingly.

“But will you be able to come see us, maybe at the London house, during
the holidays?” Pearl insisted.

“Depends on the job,” Meg said, thinking it best not to define too clearly
a situation in which it was going to be difficult to see much of the little girl.
“Anyway, we don’t have to worry about that just now. We have two or
three weeks’ holiday left.”

“I’ll speak to Uncle Dick,” muttered Pearl. “He’ll know what to do. He
always knows what to do.”

Meg thought little more of their discussion, until later that evening, when
she came from the kitchen into the hall to find Pearl carefully replacing the
telephone receiver.

“Why, Pearl dear—” Meg stopped in surprise. “Who telephoned? I didn’t

hear the bell.”

There wasn’t any bell,” Pearl explained nonchalantly. “I telephoned.”

“Did you?” Meg looked even more surprised, for she couldn’t think of
anyone in Purworth whom Pearl was likely to telephone.
 “Yes. I telephoned Uncle Dick.” A faintly defiant expression came over
Pearl’s face.

“Just to talk to him, do you mean?”

“Partly to talk to him. And partly to ask him to come and see us soon.”

“Why dear? Have you been getting lonely?”

“No. I just want to ask him something.”

“But ... Pearl—” Meg noticed how like her mother she was looking, “—
couldn’t you have asked him on the phone?”

“No. It’s something that needs talking about,” Pearl explained.

Meg bit her lip. “Your uncle’s a busy man, you know. I don’t think you
should have asked him to come all the way from London unless it was
important.”

“This was important,” declared Pearl.

“But you’re not going to tell me what it is?” Meg smiled in spite of
herself, but Pearl shook her head.

“What did he say?” Meg inquired curiously.

 “He said he’d come tomorrow, because it was Sunday and he could get
away,” Pearl stated. More than that she wouldn’t disclose.

Meg wondered if she should telephone Dick when Pearl was in bed and
assure him that, to the best of her belief, there was nothing that required
urgent discussion. But she didn’t feel justified in interfering, especially
because there were several minor matters she herself would be glad to talk
over with him.

So she contented herself with looking up the train schedule from London
to Newcastle.

In actual fact Dick didn’t arrive until late Sunday afternoon, and then in
his own car.

“Why, Dick! Do you mean to say you drove up? You must have started
terribly early,” she exclaimed.

“Not really. I spent the night with friends of mine in Hertfordshire, and
that saved me an hour or more that it takes to get out of London. Hello,
niece-with-a-talent-for-drama—” he swung Pearl up and kissed her “—you
get more like your mother every day. And not only in looks. What’s the
problem which you think is sufficiently important to bring your poor worn-
out old uncle all the way from London?”
 “I’ll tell you afterward,” said Pearl, with great composure. “Let’s have tea
first.”

“Well ... it’s an idea,” her uncle conceded.

Meg said quickly, “I’ll get tea. I’m sure Pearl would like to have you to
herself for a while.”

She went out into the kitchen and busied herself with preparing the sort of
tea a man would want after a long and tiring drive. Since Dick seemed
content to have traveled all this way to see them both, she thought little
more about the way in which Pearl had got him there.

When she returned to the living-room, pushing a well-laden trolley in

front of her, Dick was alone, lounging comfortably in one of the deep arm
chairs.

“Where’s Pearl?” Meg inquired.

“Gone to get something that needs signing before she returns to school, I
think.”

“Was that what she wanted to see you about?” Meg looked surprised.

“Oh, no.”
 “I’m sorry, Dick, if she got you here on a wild-goose chase. She
telephoned without my knowing. I’m afraid, and I didn’t feel justified in
interfering, once she said you were coming.”

“No, I gathered it was her own idea.”

“Has she told you why she wanted you to come?”

“Oh yes. She wanted to know what I was going to do about your future.”

“About my future?” Meg, who had been setting plates and cups on a
nearby table, stopped and stared at him. “Oh, Dick, I am sorry! Of course ...
I remember now ... she questioned me yesterday, and even muttered
something about asking you, because you always knew what to do. But I
never thought she would actually fetch you up here to discuss it.”

“I don’t mind. I’m quite willing to discuss it.” He smiled at her in his lazy
charming way.

“But—” she laughed protestingly “—don’t be absurd. There’s nothing for

you to discuss. Once Pearl is back at school, my work here will be over and
I’ll look for another job.”

“Pearl doesn’t seem to think that’s the solution,” he explained gravely.

“And neither do I.”
 “I don’t know what you mean.” She refused to take him seriously and
went on setting the table.

“Pearl feels ... so do I... that, having once been fortunate enough to lure
you into our circle, we shouldn’t let you go.”

“But there’s nothing for me to do, Dick, once Pearl goes back to school. I
wouldn’t want to have a job created for me. It wouldn’t work, in any case.”

He seemed unimpressed by her arguments. He merely went on smiling

calmly. “Her expression was ... though I think she was quoting me, as a
matter of fact ... that we ought to keep you in the family,” he said.

“It’s very sweet of you. But, however you put it, I’m afraid there’s no
practical way of including me in the scheme of things, once Pearl has gone
back to school,” Meg said finally. “I wish there was.”

“Ah! Then, in that case, it’s simple,” he declared. “Marry me, Meg, and
we’ll keep you in the family.”

“Mar ... Now, don’t be absurd. You told that joke before in Newcastle
Station, and I’m not going to .laugh twice at the same joke,” Meg told him.

“It’s not a joke. It’s a serious proposal.”

 “That’s just what it looks like, with you lounging there in an arm chair,
grinning at me across the room,” she assured him, and she turned to get
some spoons from a drawer behind her.

In one second he was beside her and his arms were around her from
behind.

“There’s nothing between us now,” he said, as he kissed the side of her

cheek. “I’m not lounging in a chair, I’m not even smiling ... much. Now
will you marry me?”
 CHAPTER TEN

“Dick ... please—” She was trembling a little now, for it was impossible to
remain unmoved with his arms around her and his lips against her cheek.
“If you’re really serious about this—”

“I’m perfectly serious,” he told her.

“Then I can only say—” she nervously put her hands over his, which
were lightly clasped, imprisoning her “—that I ... I like you enormously.
I’m truly flattered that you should want to marry me. But I’m not in love
with you.”

“Is that a vital objection?”

“Well, I think it is.”

“You might come to love me later.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Am I such an unlovable fellow?”

 “No. Quite the contrary. Both you and Felicity are intensely lovable
people,” Meg said slowly. “You ought to be loved by the woman you
marry, Dick. I’m just not the woman.”

“Suppose I tell you that I know you are the woman for me.”

“Then I must say—” she glanced up at him over her shoulder “—that I
know you’re not the man for me.”

“That means there’s someone else.”

“Not necessarily,” she said. But her glance fell.

“I suppose it’s Leigh Sontigan, isn’t it?”

“Oh, Dick ... please don’t put it into words. He never gives me a second
thought, I’m sure.”

“But that doesn’t make any difference?”

“No, it doesn’t make any difference.”

“All right. I accept that for the moment ... but not forever.” He turned her
quickly in his arms and smiled down at her. “Will you kiss me, just the
same, since you say I’m not unlovable?”
 “Oh, Dick—” she laughed and put her hands to his handsome face “—
you’re such a dear. I only wish—”

But she could find no words for what she really wished, so she kissed him
with tenderness and affection instead, and then put him gently aside.

As she did so, she caught her breath on a gasp of dismay for, behind him,
Leigh was standing in the open doorway.

The moment was so full of drama and tension that only trivial words
would fill it. As Leigh came into the room, Meg heard herself say, “You’re
just in time for tea.”

“Good. I could do with some. It was dusty driving.” He too seemed to be

groping among trivialities, in a slightly dazed sort of way.

It was Dick, naturally, who took the situation in his stride.

“Sit down, old man, and don’t look so embarrassed,” he said kindly. “We
didn’t expect you to walk in at that moment, but you’re welcome just the
same.”

“Thanks,” Leigh replied stiffly. Then Pearl rushed in, bringing with her a
more normal atmosphere and a blessed change of subject.

It was over at last, and Leigh got up to go.

 “Aren’t you going to stay for supper?” Pearl inquired disappointedly.

“I’m sorry. I can’t, Pearl.”

“Meg will make you something really nice ... the way she did before,”
Pearl promised.

But he said, “No!” so sharply that Pearl looked surprised, and Meg
suddenly knew exactly what it felt like to wish that the ground would open
and swallow you.

She contrived to say goodnight to him quite affably, without either

looking at him or touching his hand. And then, to her immense relief and
almost equally immense regret, he was gone, and the dreadful scene was
over.

While Pearl was still with them there was nothing she could say to Dick,
but one thing at least she determined to set right. Putting an arm around
Pearl, she said firmly, “Look here, darling, it was nice of you to think that
your uncle might settle my future for me, but you’ll just have to leave that
to me.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Pearl inquired.

From the bottom of her heart Meg wanted to say, “I don’t know! I don’t
know what on earth I am going to do.”
 But the little girl in the circle of her arm wanted reassurance, so Meg said
quietly and confidently, “We’re going to do what everyone else does, Pearl.
Just deal with things as they come. Don’t worry, sweetheart. Enjoy the nice
time we have left during the holidays. Go back to school in the ordinary
way. And I promise you that, whatever works out for me, I’ll manage to see
you and keep you as one of my best friends. Will that do?”

“Oh, yes.” Pearl was consoled.

Dick stayed for a little while after Pearl had gone to bed, though he had
already explained that he would drive back as far as York that night. At
first they talked about Pearl rather than themselves, but then, with
characteristic candor, he said, “I’m sorry Leigh came in at that point. Do
you want me to make any sort of explanation to him?”

“Explanation?” She looked astonished. “What sort of explanation do you

suppose one could possibly make?”

“Well, I mean ... if you’re so keen on him—” she winced, in spite of

herself “—I suppose the last thing you want him to think is that you were
kissing some other fellow with feeling.”

“I don’t care what he thinks!” She spoke almost violently. “I ... I’d almost
rather he read something into that scene if it would make him forget the ...
other thing he heard.”
 “What other thing?” inquired Dick.

“Oh, Dick, you know! He must have heard me say that I ... that I loved
someone other than you. And you said, ‘I suppose it’s Leigh Sontigan,’ and
I as much as said, ‘Yes.’ ”

And, overcome again by the recollection of that monstrous humiliation,

she actually buried her face in her hands.

“Good lord—” she looked up again to see Dick rubbing his chin
meditatively “—I never thought of that. But aren’t you agitating yourself
unnecessarily? I don’t think he heard that part.”

For a moment she toyed with a glimmer of hope, but then she shook her
head dejectedly. “No. You didn’t see how he looked when I first caught
sight of him. You had your back to him.”

“How did he look?” Dick wanted to know.

“Appalled,” said Meg unhappily. “Like a man who’d just been faced with
a situation he simply couldn’t take. Oh no ... he’d heard all right. He just
didn’t have time to get away.”

“I’m really sorry.” Dick said. “I feel I’m somehow to blame.”

 “You’re not in the least to blame,” Meg assured him warmly. At that
moment she felt she had never liked Dick more.

“Well, if there’s nothing I can say to him—”

“Nothing!” she repeated emphatically. “He’ll probably just keep away

now. And presently, when he marries Felicity—”

“When’s he going to marry Felicity?” inquired Dick, sitting up in his

chair.

“Oh, I don’t know. But that’s what will happen eventually.”

“All right, then. She’ll marry Leigh. And what about you, Meg?”

“What about me?”

“Don’t you know what most sensible girls do if the man they most want is
out of their reach? They make themselves happy with the second best. And
that’s me.”

“There’s nothing second best about you,” Meg said rather indignantly.
“You’ll be someone’s first best one day ... and that’s what you deserve.”

“Couldn’t you leave that to me to decide, sweetheart?” He smiled as he

got up to go. And then, without waiting for her to reply, he went on, “I
know, you’re feeling too hurt and harassed to make any decision just now,
and I’m not pressing for one. But think it over. And remember ... in the
rather touching words of my niece ... ‘Uncle Dick usually knows the
answer.’ ”

She laughed reluctantly, and somehow felt a little better.

The next morning there was another letter from Felicity, and a brightly
colored postcard for Pearl.

Once more, Felicity’s letter was light-hearted and amusing, but this time
she wrote much more about Max.

She referred only passingly to Leigh and, reading eagerly between the
lines, Meg thought she detected a breath of that sweetly brutal indifference
which Felicity displayed toward almost everyone when her interest waned.

“I expect it’s wishful thinking on my part,” Meg told herself. “And

anyway, what does it matter to me, one way or the other?”

Of course it did matter to her. For hope is the most indestructible emotion
in any heart, and she could not help being faintly cheered (though guiltily
so) by the thought that Felicity’s interest might once more be veering from
Leigh to Max Trenton.
 Only when she thought of Laura Trenton did she feel badly, but she
couldn’t alter the situation between Felicity and Max one way or the other.

All the same, she was glad Laura did not live in the village and that she
was not likely to run into her until something definite had been decided.

Therefore, Meg was put out to see Laura’s car pull up at the gate one
afternoon. Laura, catching sight of her at the window, beckoned
energetically. Meg ran out to greet her visitor.

“My dear, I can’t stop,” Laura called, as soon as Meg came within hearing
distance. “I’m on my way to Newcastle. But I simply had to tell you. I’m
going to meet Max.”

“To meet ... Max?” Meg stared at the happy face which beamed at her
from the open car window. “But I thought he was in Spain.”

“He’s come home. There’s been some sort of bust-up with Felicity ... and
he’s coming home.”

“With Felicity? Is she coming home too?” inquired Meg quickly.

“I don’t know.” It was obvious that Laura didn’t care either. “But Max is
coming. He sent me a ridiculously long, expensive cable, saying I should
meet him at the barrier at Newcastle Central, or it just wouldn’t feel like
coming home. I always used to meet him ... in his college days. I didn’t
think he remembered. Oh, I have to go or I’ll be late. But I had to stop and
tell you. I knew you’d be interested.”

“Yes,” Meg said. “Of course. I’m ... terribly interested.” Then Laura
drove off and Meg was left staring after the car.
 CHAPTER ELEVEN
As the sound of Laura’s car died away in the distance, Meg turned and
went slowly back into the house.

She was glad for Laura, of course. Truly glad. But she thought of Felicity
—at loose ends without Max, disillusioned over her latest admirer. And
though she loved her charming, unpredictable employer, she thought of her
now with apprehension.

“I mustn’t lose my sense of proportion,” Meg told herself. “It’s indecent

to see everything solely as it affects oneself. The important thing is that
Laura is finding happiness after all.”

But Meg was glad when Pearl came running in to the house. However,
Pearl’s first query was, “Who was that who stopped at the gate? I didn’t
recognize the car.”

“It was Laura Trenton.”

“Is she any relation of Max?”

“Yes, his cousin. I met her at that party I went to with your mother and
Max.”

“Why didn’t she come in and have tea?” Pearl wanted to know.
 “She was in a hurry. She was on her way to Newcastle to meet—” Meg
stopped suddenly, realizing that the mention of Max would draw a spate of
questions.

But Pearl was immediately curious.

“Who is she going to meet in Newcastle?” she inquired. Since there was
no sense in making a mystery of it, Meg said, reluctantly, “Max.”

“Max?” Pearl’s face lit up. “Has he come home, then? Will Mommy be
coming home too?”

“No, dear, not yet.” Meg sounded matter-of-fact.

“Oh—” Pearl looked disappointed. “Why has he come home and Mommy
hasn’t?”

“I suppose he had some private matter to attend to,” said Meg.

“But, if the movie is finished ... or that part of it’s finished ... you’d think
she would come too.” Pearl frowned.

“I expect we’ll hear something soon,” Meg assured her. “It’s even
possible that she’s come back but has stopped in London for a day or two.”
 Pearl cheered up and said, “Well, if Mommy didn’t bother to come home
with Max, she’s certainly not going to marry him. So that’s all right.”

Pearl seemed cheerful after that and made no reference to the future until
Meg came to tuck her in bed and kiss her goodnight. Then she said, with an
air of having thought things over, “If I could think of any other way of
Leigh staying, he wouldn’t necessarily have to marry Mommy.”

“I think he’ll stay around anyway.” Meg smiled down at her, and hoped
she was speaking with accuracy, “But he lives here in the north,” Pearl
pointed out. “And our real home is in London.”

“He often goes to London, I’m sure,” Meg said consolingly. “So go to
sleep now, and leave the future to look after itself.”

But Meg, as she went downstairs, caught her breath on a slight,

involuntary sigh. Though she could give good counsel, it was more than
she could do to follow it herself.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, the telephone rang, and she
hurried to answer it, with that half hopeful, half apprehensive eagerness
inevitable when one is balanced on a knife-edge between happiness and
despair.

Perhaps it was Leigh, back from London. But if so, what would his news
be?
 It was, however, Laura’s voice which hailed her, on a note of such jubilant
happiness that words were almost unnecessary. “Oh, Meg, is that you? I
had to phone and tell you—”

“You’re engaged,” said Meg.

“Yes! How did you know? It’s only happened.”

“It showed when you spoke to me this afternoon on the way to meet Max
at the station.” Meg told her with friendly amusement.

“Oh, but you were guessing!” Laura declared. “You might have seen how
I felt. You couldn’t know how Max felt. I didn’t know myself.”

“I suspected it,” Meg assured her, “when he mentioned the station in his
telegram. He told Felicity and me on the way home from that party of yours
how you always used to meet him there in the old days. And he looked like
a man who had suddenly remembered something which mattered
immensely.”

“Oh, Meg how nice!” Laura laughed happily. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Absolutely wonderful,” Meg agreed heartily. “Dear Laura, I’m so happy

for you. Did he come all the way from Spain to ask you to marry him?”
 “Not exactly. He came home disillusioned with everything, really. Only
he says that, on the way, he kept thinking of the lovely time we used to
have together and how—his words, not mine, Meg—I always understood
him and made him feel all right again when things went wrong.”

“A very nice compliment,” said Meg heartily.

“Did Felicity come back to England with him?”

“No. I think they had words, Meg. She’s really unreasonable, you know,
and I’m sure she never realized how sensitive Max is in many ways.”

Meg interjected quickly, “Very likely. But do you know when Felicity is
coming back?”

“I don’t. You see, she really hurt Max over something she said, and when
someone’s hurt—”

“But I take it the Spanish part of the movie was finished?” put in Meg,
whose interest in Max was fading rapidly.

“Oh yes, certainly. Max wouldn’t have left in the middle of his work,
however badly he felt about things. He’s immensely conscientious, you
know. That’s why, when Felicity—”
 “I’m sure he is,” said Meg kindly but firmly. “I expect Felicity will be
coming back any day now. But I won’t keep you, Laura dear. You must be
longing to get back to Max. Please give him my warmest congratulations,
and tell him that he’s a very lucky man.”

Laura accepted these good wishes and finally hung up.

Meg went into the drawing room and turned on the radio. But she found
she was paying no attention so she turned it off again. As she did so, she
heard a car pull up outside.

With a slight exclamation, she ran to the window. And there was Leigh,
coming to the front door.

“Leigh!” She was not sure if she said his name aloud or just whispered it
rapturously to herself while she ran out into the hall and opened the door.

“Hello!” He stood there, smiling down at her. “It’s a bit late to visit, I
know, but I got back from London a few hours ago and thought I’d come
out while I could. I may be busy tomorrow, and possibly the next day too.
How are you both getting on?”

“We’re fine.” She smiled back at him, unable to hide her pleasure, as she
stood aside for him to enter the house. “But Pearl’s in bed ... and fast
asleep, I think.”
 “Then we won’t disturb her.” He came into the living room and, at Meg’s
invitation, helped himself to a drink.

“You won’t have anything?”

“No, thank you.” Meg had picked up her needlework, which was
conveniently handy. “Did all your affairs go satisfactorily in London?”

“Oh yes, thank you.” He sounded slightly amused by the question.

“Did you meet ... anyone?”

“Anyone? Many business associates and a few friends. I didn’t have time
to see Claire and your father, if that’s what you mean.”

“No, I didn’t mean them. I wondered if you’d met Felicity.”

“Felicity?” There was real surprise in his voice. “No. Is she home?”

“I’m not quite sure. But Max Trenton came home today, and I understand
work on the film is finished.”

“Indeed?” This was evidently news to him. “Did Dick tell you this?”

“Oh no. I haven’t been in touch with Dick. Laura Trenton told me. In fact
—” Meg put down her work and made herself look at him calmly “—she
phoned not half an hour ago, to tell me that she and Max are engaged.”
 “Laura Trenton and Max?” He sounded surprised, but she could not detect
any other emotion in his voice. “But I thought—” he stopped, then altered
what he had been going to say. “Was it a surprise to you?”

“Not entirely. I had guessed she was keen on him, and I suspected he was
fonder of her than he knew.”

“Very perspicacious of you! I thought he was supposed to be mad about

Felicity.”

“I never took that very seriously, did you?” Meg’s tone was admirably
cool.

“To be frank, I did,” he replied dryly, and she saw he was not especially
pleased to realize that he had given himself anxiety over Max Trenton.
“But now—” again he stopped, and seemed to be considering something
which had just occurred to him. “You say you don’t know if Felicity has
returned to England yet?”

“No. That’s why I was anx ... interested to know if you had run across her
in London.”

“I wouldn’t have, anyway. The friends I was with are in a different circle.
But I’m returning in a couple of days and—”
 “Oh, are you?” She was disappointed and couldn’t completely hide the
fact.

“Yes. That’s why I made a point of coming out to Purworth tonight.”

“It was very kind of you,” said Meg, trying not to sound chilled.

“Was there something you wanted me to handle, Meg?”

“No, thank you. Everything’s all right. It was just—” what could she say?
“—it was just that I thought Pearl might be disappointed not to have seen
you, if you’re going away again so soon.”

“I’ll be back before she goes to school,” he promised easily. “I do spend a

good deal of time in London, you know. Almost half my professional
interests are there.”

“I see.”

“And when I go there later this week I’ll make a point of looking up Dick
Manners and finding out about Felicity.”

“Yes ... do.” She wished she could stop sounding so stiff and reserved all
at once. “And you’ll let me know?”
 “Of course. But you’ll have heard from Dick yourself by then, won’t
you?”

“I ... might not. I’d appreciate it if you would phone some evening and let
me know.”

“Why, certainly.” But he looked faintly surprised, and she wondered

uneasily if she had sounded too pressing.

Very soon after that he got up and said he must go, which made her even
more miserably anxious lest she should have sounded too eager to trespass
on his time. But he smiled down at her in his old teasing manner as he said
goodnight, and added, “Shall I give Dick any message from you?”

“Dick? No, thank you. I don’t think so.” She pulled her hand away rather
quickly.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” He laughed, but contritely. “Shouldn’t I tease you about
it?”

“About Dick? There’s nothing to tease me about where Dick is

concerned.” She was so emphatic about that that her tone sounded formal
and almost offended.

“This time I really apologize!” He looked serious now. “It was stupid of
me ... and rather tasteless. I’m sorry, Meg. Forget it. I sometimes think I
have the wrong sense of humor where you are concerned.”

He gave her a friendly pat on the cheek and went out.

But as she stared after him, the most horrible suspicion suddenly
crystallized.

!
“Leigh!’ She jumped up and ran after him, catching up with him at the
gate just as he was getting into his car. “Leigh!”

He turned immediately and said, “What is it?”

“I must ask you—” she was breathless, but the words tumbled out “—the
other evening ... did you think I was upset because you’d seen me kissing
Dick?”

“Well ... yes. What else?”

“What else? You didn’t hear me saying anything that ... that I wouldn’t
have wanted anyone else to hear?”

“I don’t think so.” He shook his head, faintly puzzled. “I don’t really
remember hearing you say anything at all.”

“Oh ... Leigh!” She was divided between relief and the utmost
disappointment.
 “Should I have heard something?”

“No, no ... of course not! I thought you did, that’s all. And, all the time ...
it was just that you thought I minded your seeing Dick kiss me.”

“You kiss Dick,” he corrected.

“Well, one way or the other. It doesn’t matter which. If you didn’t hear,
it’s ... it’s all right.”

“You know—” he took hold of her lightly by her upper arms “—you said
that exactly as though you really meant ‘If you didn’t hear, it’s all wrong.’ ”

“Nonsense!”

“Come on, Meg,” he said, half coaxingly, half teasingly, “what did you
say that I ought not ... or ought ... to have heard?”

“There was nothing.”

“I’m shamelessly curious by now,” he declared, his eyes glinting with

amusement. “I’ll start guessing.”

“No, you won’t! And please let me go.”

“Very well. But there’s something first that I do want to ask you about
that evening. When you and Dick—”
 “No! I’m not going to answer any questions at all.” Suddenly she was
frightened and agitated.

“Meg—”

“Not anything at all!” she reiterated passionately. And, wrenching herself

away from his hold, she ran up the path and into the house.

She didn’t actually slam the door behind her, but she shut it firmly.
Almost immediately she heard the sound of his car driving away.

Then she experienced the most dreadful reaction.

She told herself over and over again how relieved she was to know that he
had not, after all, overheard her foolish admission that she loved him. To
this extent at least her pride and her self-respect were safe.

He just thought she had been embarrassed, possibly even apprehensive,

because he had seen her flirting with Dick.

It’s all reduced to something so ... so petty, Meg thought sadly. I didn’t
behave cleverly or even gracefully just now. Simply panicked and ran away.
He must think me so childish and tiresome. If he thinks of me at all.

And, at the idea that he might dismiss her altogether from his thoughts,
Meg had some difficulty in swallowing a lump in her throat.
 It was not until the next morning that the consoling reflection came to her
that he would be telephoning from London soon. She must be prepared to
handle the situation lightly and charmingly, in a way which would make
him forget her rather gauche behavior of the previous evening.

She tried out one or two amusing little comments and sentences to herself.
She even thought she might embark on a casual explanation of her
somewhat foolish exit.

But none of this was needed. Instead of telephoning Meg, Leigh wrote a
short note to Pearl, with the information about Felicity’s return.

“It’s from Leigh, Meg!” There was no mistaking Pearl’s gratification.

“And he says Mommy is coming back to England today. No, it will have
been yesterday. Look—” and she held out the letter for Meg’s inspection.

With a great effort, Meg concealed her disappointment that Leigh would
not now telephone her. She smiled brightly at Pearl, took the letter and
read: “I’m sorry, my dear, that you were asleep when I called the other
evening, but I’ll be back in the north before you go back to school, and I’ll
bring you a present from London.

“Your mother is coming back to England today, I’ll probably be meeting

her at the airport, but I understand she will be staying in London for a few
days. Will you tell Meg for me? She wanted to know what the
arrangements were.”
 There followed a few messages for Pearl herself, and a conventional
greeting to Meg.

“Isn’t it a nice letter?” Pearl was watching Meg eagerly for signs of
approval.

“Perfectly charming,” said Meg, with the best smile she could muster, and
she handed the letter back.

For several minutes Pearl burbled on happily about Leigh and the present,
she was to get and, to a lesser degree, about her mother’s return.

“I expect we’ll hear soon when Mommy is coming back here,” Pearl said.
“Or perhaps we’ll join her in London. That would be nice! Would you like
that, Meg? To have a few days in London with me before I go back to
school?”

“I’ll like a few days with you wherever they’re spent,” Meg told her with
a smile, and she ruffled Pearl’s hair affectionately as she got up to clear the
breakfast table.

Well. That was that. He didn’t even want to telephone her. If she went on
after that hoping for some miracle which would make everything O.K.
again, then she was just being a fool.

But she went on hoping, all the same.

 Every day she looked for a letter—from Felicity or Dick, or even Leigh
himself. Every evening she waited for a long-distance telephone call. But
several days slid past without a word about Felicity.

Obviously Leigh was lingering in London. If he had returned to the north,

he would have come out to Purworth, if only to see Pearl. After a while,
even Pearl herself remarked, “It’s about time Leigh came home, isn’t it? If
he doesn’t come soon, he’ll miss me. So will Mommy,” she added as an
afterthought. “I wonder if they’ve both forgotten the date when I go back to
school.”

“I don’t expect so, darling.” Meg spoke with a casual air of reassurance. It
was all she could do to hide her real feelings when Pearl went on
thoughtfully, “It’s funny they should both stay so long in London and not
even write or phone. I wonder what they’re doing.”

Meg wondered too. Desperately. But she had to pretend to the little girl
that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Late that evening, when Pearl was asleep the phone rang. But the voice
which answered her when she snatched up the receiver was Dick’s.

“Why, Dick! I’ve been wondering what on earth happened to everybody,”

Meg cried reproachfully. “Pearl and I haven’t heard anything for ages.”
 “Not quite a week,” he corrected her. “But yes, I know it was a long
silence. Things have been pretty hectic here.”

He sounded curiously subdued and, for no reason she could explain, she
felt her heart begin to thump heavily.

“Has anything happened?” she asked almost apprehensively.

“Quite a lot.”

“You sound ... depressed, somehow.”

“Well, I have to tell you something which I’d much rather not have to
say.”

“What is it?” She braced herself, but she felt a chill so acute that it was
almost as though cold water ran down her spine. “Is it about ... Felicity?”

“Yes. She was married today.”

 CHAPTER TWELVE
In the most extraordinary way, it seemed to Meg as though everything
suddenly stopped: the heavy beating of her heart, the quick, uneven catch
of her breath, even the hall clock, which usually ticked so loudly. For
perhaps three seconds, an immense stillness enveloped her.

Then she heard a scraping noise coming from the telephone, and she said,
almost absently, “What did you say?”

Faintly Dick’s voice asked, “Are you still there, Meg?”

“Yes.”

“I can hardly hear you.”

She could hardly hear him either, but she supposed that was part of the
strange numbness which had not yet worn off. With an effort, she raised her
voice, and, although she knew the answer, she managed to make herself
ask, “Whom did she marry?” Again Dick’s voice was almost inaudible. She
could just hear that he was speaking, above the persistent scraping noise.
Then suddenly both his distant voice and the noise ceased, and Meg was
left staring at a silent receiver.

And then there was a knock at the front door. Meg dropped the telephone
and rushed to open the door. Outside stood Mrs. Parker.
 “Ee, lass, nothing would do with Parker but that I should away and tell
you not to worry if you can’t use your telephone. There’s a great big lorry
run into the pole that carries all the cross wires, as you might say, and half
the wires in the village are down. There’ll be a lot can’t do their bit of
nightly gossip tonight. I said, ‘Miss Greenway isn’t one to talk for hours on
the telephone.’ But Parker, he said ... with his feet on the mantelpiece and
his backside in a comfortable chair ... ‘You get away up to Miss Greenway
and say not to worry. The whole thing will be mended tomorrow. Or may
be the next day.’ ”

“Thank you, Mrs. Parker,” said Meg, controlling her impatience with
difficulty. “I did wonder what had happened. I was just in the middle of a
call when the line faded and went dead. Do you suppose we’ll all be
without phones for a day or two, Mrs. Parker?”

“Parker says so,” declared Mrs. Parker, though with a degree of

scepticism in her tone for the reliability of her husband’s information. “You
never can tell.”

“Thank you very much for coming up, Mrs. Parker. It was awfully kind of
you.”

“You’re welcome,” Mrs. Parker assured her. “You’re not nervous like,
alone here without the telephone to tinkle?”
 “Oh no, thank you. I’m not in the least nervous,” Meg declared. And that
was true. Even when Mrs. Parker had gone and everything in the house was
quiet again, she was not nervous, only indescribably restless and unhappy.

It was impossible to settle down. Neither a book nor any work could hold
her attention at this moment. Instead, she wandered softly from room to
room, careful not to disturb Pearl, but unable to sit alone with her thoughts.

By now she couldn’t absolutely recall what she had heard Dick say. And
yet it seemed to her that, if only she could remember his exact words, she
would be able to guess the rest of his message.

Leigh’s name had not been mentioned. Of that she was certain. Dick had
merely said that Felicity had been married that day.

Was it, then, absolutely certain that it was Leigh she had married?

For a few brief, glorious moments, Meg luxuriated in the possibility that
Felicity might have married some other, unspecified person.

She went to bed at last, but for a long time lay awake, counting the hours
by the chime of the old church clock. And when she slept at last, she was
tormented by confused dreams, in which Felicity and Leigh and even Dick
came and went like figures in some strange nightmare dance.
 She woke late with a sense of foreboding and depression. Even from Pearl
it was difficult to hide the fact that she was restless and unhappy.

“You’ve changed somehow.” Pearl regarded her thoughtfully across the

breakfast table. “You were so gay and happy a few days ago. Now you look
solemn and worried. Is anything the matter, Meg?”

“Nothing,” Meg assured her mechanically.

“Perhaps you’re tired of being alone with me,” suggested Pearl without
rancor. “You’ll be glad when Mommy comes back and makes all the
decisions, won’t you?”

“Yes, I suppose.” But even as she said the words Meg found herself
wondering uneasily when she should tell Pearl the news about her mother,
and just how she would react to it.

Joyously, presumably. For she had already declared that she wished her
mother would marry Leigh.

Later, when Pearl had gone to play with her new friends at the vicarage,
Meg took herself firmly to task.

It was useless to mope around, she assured herself, just because some ill-
founded hopes had come to nothing. Leigh never had been anything special
in her life. Or, to be more exact perhaps, she had been nothing in his life.
 Nothing has really changed since the day when I met Pearl, she thought.
In a way, this has been a delightful, sometimes harrowing interlude.
Basically, it hasn’t changed the course of my life. Pearl will go back to
school. Felicity will continue her erratic but successful path, married to
Leigh instead of merely on the point of marrying him, Dick...

For a moment or two she paused to think more speculatively about Dick,
who really did want to change the course of her life. But although she liked
him almost as much as she had ever liked anyone, it seemed to her that
even her contact with him was a passing phase. She could imagine herself
being friends with him. She could even imagine herself confiding in him,
flirting with him, or shedding a few tears upon his shoulder. But she simply
could not imagine herself married to him.

His proposal had touched and surprised her, but it had certainly not
shaken her to the roots of her being. Nor, she thought shrewdly, had it done
so with him. His sincerity was beyond question ... and, indeed, he would
probably return to the attack, now that Leigh had been removed from
competition. But she knew quite well what her answer would be the second
time—or the third, or the fourth.

She winced a little to think that Dick knew so much about her crushed
hopes and feelings. But at the same time she longed for him to come and
tell her the rest of the sorry tale. It would be better to hear it from him, she
decided ... the sooner the better.
 Undoubtedly he would telephone as soon as communication was restored.
But she found herself wishing that he would find some speedier method of
letting her know. Anything would be better than existing in this agonizing
vacuum of half-ignorance, waiting for a blow.

“I wish I could know now ... this very minute!” Meg told herself.

And, as though in terrifying, almost supernatural answer to her

declaration, there was the sound of a car stopping outside the house.

“It’s Dick!” she exclaimed aloud, with cold, despairing conviction, and all
her courage and resolution dropped from her like a discarded cloak.

If she could have fled, she would have done so. If she could have clung to
one more minute of illusion and false hope, she would have done so. As
she heard his quick, firm tread across the hall, her one thought was to recall
the boldly expressed wish, as though she could put off the moment of final
anguish a little longer.

But the door opened and suddenly she turned away with her hands over
her face and exclaimed, “No! Don’t tell me!”

There was a full second of silence. Then Leigh’s voice said gently, “Don’t
tell you what?”

“Leigh!” She dropped her hands and turned to face him.

 “What on earth is the matter?” He came forward quickly and took her
cold hands. “Are you ill?”

“No—” she stared up at him in bewilderment “—no, I’m not ill. What are
you doing here?”

“I was worried about you. Dick said you cut off in the middle of a phone
call last night, and he couldn’t re-establish communication. I thought
something must be wrong. I caught the night train—”

“You caught ... the night train?” she repeated incredulously. “Just because
you thought something might be wrong?”

“It was reason enough,” he returned curtly. “And, now that I see you, it
looks to me as though something is wrong. Where’s Pearl?”

“She’s ... all right.” She suddenly realized how tightly her cold fingers
were gripping his. “She’s at the vicarage.” Meg made an immense effort to
loosen her grip and speak calmly. “I haven’t told her the news yet. I thought
I’d better wait until I knew a ... a little more. The telephone wires are down
in the village. That’s why Dick couldn’t get through.”

She was speaking very rapidly now, though more connectedly, but she
thought there must be something queer about what she was saying because
he was looking at her so searchingly.
 “Sit down,” he said gently. He stood beside her still holding one of her
hands. “I’d say you were feverish, if your hands weren’t so cold. Have you
had a shock or something?”

Meg shook her head, because she was afraid of crying, divided as she was
between anguish and the unspeakable comfort of having him hold her hand
and chafe it in that anxious manner.

“Have you been worrying yourself about the effect of the news on Pearl?”

“Oh no.” She found her voice again, though it sounded husky to her own
ears. “She’ll be very pleased. It was what she always wanted.”

“Was it?” He looked puzzled. “But I don’t see how—” he began.

“The very first time I met her—” Meg rushed on eagerly so that he would
have something else to think about besides her own agitated state “—the
very first time I met her she was grieving about your absence and saying
that she wished she could have you for her father. Though I wish Felicity
had accompanied you, so that you could tell her about it together.”

She thought she had managed rather well. But almost immediately she
knew she could not have done so, for there was a long, astounded pause.
Then he said: “Do you mind telling me what you’re talking about?”
 “Why—” she looked up at him uncertainly “—your marriage, of course.
Your marriage to Felicity.”

“But, my dear child,” he said very gently. “I didn’t marry Felicity. She
married some crashingly good-looking Spanish fellow that she met on this
film caper. And she’s gone around the world on a honeymoon trip, leaving
the movie and Pearl and everything else flat.”

“You mean she ... she didn’t marry you?” Meg seemed unable to take this
in.

“She didn’t marry me,” he stated categorically.

“But ... why not?” she muttered bewilderedly.

“For one thing, she didn’t want to. And, for another, I didn’t want to
marry her,” was the cool reply.

“Oh,” said Meg, putting her forehead against the hand which was holding
hers so reassuringly, and for a moment allowing her mind to go absolutely
and blissfully blank.

Then Leigh’s voice said, from a long way away, “I think you’d better
drink this.” She heard her teeth chattering against a glass he was holding to
her lips and she obediently drank something which tasted fiery and not very
agreeable.
 “Why, that was brandy, wasn’t it?” she said. “I don’t really like brandy.”

“No?” He sounded amused. “Well, it’s a good stimulant. And at least it’s
brought some color back to your cheeks.”

She sat up and confusedly pushed her hair back from her forehead.

“I don’t know why on earth I behaved in that silly way!” She was in
better command of herself now. “I slept badly last night and didn't feel too
good this morning. And then ... I was a little worried about the garbled
version of the news which I managed to gather from Dick, and I suppose
the shock of finding I had it all wrong anyway just ... just made my head
swim for a minute.”

“I think so.” He appeared to accept her explanation unreservedly. “You

made my head swim, with your insistence on marrying me off against my
will.”

She smiled faintly. But she said, as though she could not help it, “There
was a time when it wouldn’t have been against your will, Leigh, wasn’t
there?”

“Wisdom comes to all of us eventually,” he answered her lightly.

“You mean—” she hesitated, but then she had to know the truth “—you
mean it doesn’t hurt now, the fact that Felicity has married someone else?”
 “Not in the least.”

“Such a complete cure,” she murmured, half to herself. “Does that really
happen ... in a comparatively short time?”

“If there is some assistance, yes.”

“Some assistance?” She looked inquiringly at him. At that he sat down on

the arm of her chair and put his arm around her.

“Never mind generalizations just now,” he said, and she felt him kiss the
top of her head. “This is about you and me, Meg.”

“I ... is it?” she whispered, and she began to tremble.

“No, don’t tremble, darling. There’s nothing to be frightened about.”

“I’m not frightened. At least ... I don’t think I am.”

But she was frightened, lest the sudden wild hope which had flared up
within her was to be finally extinguished.

“Tell me ... quickly,” she said, and her fingers twined nervously in his.

He laughed at that, and could not resist a teasing protest. “I won’t be

hustled into a proposal,” he declared. “I’ve prepared it in the best phrases I
know. But—” suddenly he stopped as she looked up at him, and then he
gathered her into his arms. “I’ve forgotten the phrases,” he said, with his
lips against her cheek. “When I see your dear, scared little face, I only
know that I love you and that you must love me. Please say that you love
me, Meg. I can’t bear it if you don’t.”

“I love you. I’ve always loved you,” she told him confusedly.

“Nonsense, my inaccurate little darling,” he declared. “You couldn’t stand

me in the beginning. Remember?”

“I just loved you without knowing it,” she insisted.

“Perhaps that was it,” he agreed tenderly. “And who am I to argue with
you on such a satisfactory conclusion? Only tell me, sweet ... was I
completely wrong in thinking for a while you were in love with Dick?”

“In love with Dick Manners?” She sat up indignantly; “Certainly I wasn’t.
Whatever made you think such a thing?”

“Seeing you in his arms, for one thing.”

“Oh ... that.” She cast her mind back with some difficulty. “That wasn’t
anything. He’d been nice and ... and comforting about something. And he
did fancy himself in love with me for a while, you know.”

“And that was all?”

 “Yes, of course that was all. What else would there be?”

“Well, why were you in such a state about something you thought I might
have overheard on that occasion?”

“Something? Oh!” She stopped and laughed and blushed. “I thought you
heard me tell him I love you.”

“Good lord! You confided in him to that extent?”

“I had to,” she said simply. “I was explaining why I couldn’t marry him.”

“Oh—” he laughed on a note of supreme relief “—I adore you. How I

wish I had heard you.”

“I thought you had, for quite a while. But then it turned out that you
hadn’t heard anything anyway, and I was sick with disappointment. I felt
sure you were going to marry Felicity, after all ... and I just wanted to die.”

“Well, now you can get enthusiastic about living, instead,” he told her
tenderly. “Living with me for the rest of your life. How does that sound?”

“Heavenly,” she said, with a deep sigh. “Remind me about it often, Leigh.
I can hardly believe it, even now. Oh, how wonderful that Felicity is
married to someone else! I can’t think why Dick was so subdued and
apologetic about the news.”
 “I think he was a bit shattered ... we all were ... at the way she did it. It
does leave Pearl high and dry, doesn’t it?”

“Oh ... Pearl!” With remorse Meg recalled the little girl’s existence. “Yes,
of course. How long will Felicity be away?”

“No one seems to know. Least of all Felicity. That’s part of the trouble.
What stability Pearl has ever known has now been snatched away from her.
The one stable thing in her life is boarding school. A pretty dim thought for
a little girl of nine.”

“Oh, but we can give her stability!” Meg cried eagerly.

“We can?”

“Of course. She’ll come to us for her vacation. Any time. She’ll be going
back to school next week, and we must see to it that we get married and
have a home ready for her before next summer and ... what are you
laughing about?”

“You,” he said, picking her up in his arms and kissing her as he laughed.
“I think you’re only marrying me to provide Pearl with a home.”

“It’s a good secondary reason,” she assured him, but she laughed too as
she returned his kisses. “It’s a wonderful thought, isn’t it? The answer to
everything she wants, poor little girl. She said that the people she loves are
always going away. Now she needn’t feel that way again. And here she
comes, just in time for us to tell her,” Meg added excitedly, as the front
door banged and light footsteps came running across the hall.

“Break it to her gently,” Leigh murmured warningly, as the door opened

and Pearl came in.

But Meg said, “Good news doesn’t need gentle handling,” and she held
out her arms to Pearl.

“Come here, darling! We have something wonderful to tell you. Leigh

and I are going to be married, and you’ll have a second home and come to
us in the holidays whenever you want!”

“Well, I told you that was the best way long ago,” Pearl declared, as she
rushed to embrace Meg. “At least, I wanted to tell you, but you kept saying
one shouldn’t make plans for grown-up people. I think one should. They so
often don’t really know what they want themselves.”

“Profound and chastening thought,” murmured Leigh, but he stooped to

kiss her too.

“What about Mommy?” Pearl went on. “I’ll have to go and stay with her
too sometimes. Will she live in Spain, now that she’s married a Spaniard?
It’ll be rather fun having a Spanish father, but a bore if I have to learn
Spanish. Do you think I’ll be able to have some castanets for Christmas?”
 There was a stunned silence while Meg and Leigh looked at each other.
Then Pearl opened her eyes very wide and said, “Didn’t you know Mommy
had married again?”

“Yes,” Meg admitted feebly. “We knew. We were wondering what was the
best way of telling you. But it seems—” She stopped, and then asked with
curiosity, “How did you know?”

“Miss Pettigrew told me at the post office. I went in to get some licorice,
and they’d mended the main line so that telegrams could come through, and
there was a telegram from Uncle Dick to you. I offered to take it with me,
but Miss Pettigrew said that would be against the rules. But she told me
what was in the telegram instead, and that was how I knew.”

“I see,” said Meg, and she began to laugh. Almost immediately Leigh
joined in and, after a faintly mystified glance from one to the other, Pearl
laughed too.

Their combined mirth must have penetrated the kitchen, because a

moment later Mrs. Parker put her head around the door and inquired,
“What’s the joke?”

“I don’t ... quite know,” gasped Meg, wiping her eyes.

But Leigh said, “The joke, Mrs. Parker, is that we all think we have our
little secrets, but if one lives in a village that’s pure illusion. So, in order to
forestall all inspired guessing, I’m going to tell you our special secret
immediately. Miss Meg and I are going to be married.”

“That’s no secret to me,” Mrs. Parker retorted scornfully. “I’ve seen it

coming for a couple of weeks or more. You ask Parker. ‘Mark my words,’ I
said, ‘Miss Meg was never cut out to be an old maid, and that Mr.
Sontigan’s no fool. They’ll run together like two drops of water, they will,’
I said. And very pleased I am to see it, sir. Very pleased indeed.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Parker,” said the two drops of water in unison, and to
both of them it seemed that no comparison could have been sweeter or
more apt.