Part 23 (2/2)

What will you do with yourself this afternoon?

The children will be at school, I'm afraid, but Al could drive you round if you would like that.

' ”T'd rather walk,” she said promptly, 'if I could have the address of this house written down just in case I get lost.

' And so she walked, seen out of the house in a fatherly way by Al, who having issued a series of warnings about traffic on the wrong side of the road and not falling into ca.n.a.ls, stood at the door until she was at the end of the quiet street.

She turned and waved to him just before she went round the corner.

The city was easy enough to find one's way about.

Al had a.s.sured her there were two large squares into which the main streets converged, so that it would be impossible to get lost.

Alethea, wandering happily from one to the other, got lost a dozen times, but there was always the tall spire of St Martin's church acting as a towering landmark to guide her.

The shops were enticing and worthy of a much longer visit, she discovered as she began to wend her way back to Sarre's house, but she would have ample time to shop.

Sarre would be at the hospital or his rooms each day, she imagined, and the children at school; she would be left largely to her own devices.

She was wrong.

Sarre returned home very shortly after she herself did, to find her sitting alone in the small sitting room Al had invited her to use.

The children, Al informed her, were in their own playroom where they

had their tea with Nanny and he promised her a nice English tea in a brace of shakes.

Before he could bring it, however, Sarre joined her.

”You must think that you've been entirely forgotten,” he observed, 'and

I'm sorry, although I suppose being a nurse you understand that my time

isn't my own.

But I've arranged to be free tomorrow afternoon so that I can show you the countryside, and in the morning perhaps you would like to come to the clinic with me.

Wien and is in charge of it and I send those patients who I think might

benefit to him there.

I've beds in the orthopaedic hospital, of course, and quite a large private practice.

' He stretched out in a large wing chair opposite her, looking relaxed and not in the least tired, and when Al brought the tea presently and she had poured it and handed him a cup, he said comfortably: ”This is nice, I had quite forgotten how pleasant it is to come home to someone waiting for me.

Are the children in?

' She felt as though she had been his wife for years.

”Yes, upstairs having their tea with Nanny; Al says they always do.

' Sarre bit into one of Mrs McCrea's scones.

”They usually come down when I'm home, but I expect they're a little

shy.

' He smiled at her.

”They'll not be that for long.

How did you find them?

' He wasn't looking at her.

A large s.h.a.ggy dog was peering at them through the window and Sarre got up to let him in.

”Rough--hullo, old fellow!

Alethea, he was in the kitchen when we arrived and I took him with me in the car-you've not met him.

' Alethea liked dogs; she scratched his ear for him and he looked up at her with instant friendliness.

”He's a poppet,” she declared, glad that his entry had saved her having to answer Sarre about the children.

Of course they weren't shy, she thought silently; they were being unfriendly, but whether they were prepared to let their father see that, she had yet to discover.

It seemed that they weren't, for when they joined them presently in the sitting room they were the very soul of politeness, asking her questions about England, telling her about school, wanting to know about the wedding.

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