Part 33 (1/2)

' Sarre bent to kiss her cheek.

”I've neglected you shamefully--we'll go to see my solicitor next week

and there are several aunts and uncles.

' He smiled down at her.

”Goodnight, Alethea.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

life was suddenly more fun, Alethea discovered during

the next week. Sarre came home each day to lunch, and once or twice he came home for tea as well, and on two evenings, after dinner, he had taken her out in the Bristol, into the country to the north of the city where it was mostly farmland and not much traffic, and i handed the car over to her, sitting beside her without saying a word while she got over her initial nervousness and then, once she had discovered that the Bristol was as easy to drive as her Colt, still saying nothing when she went much too fast and narrowly missed sending them into a ca.n.a.l.

At the last minute he had laid a hand over hers and turned the wheel and remarked on a laugh: ”You're a demon driver, aren't you?

Who taught you?

' ”The village blacksmith, only he doesn't shoe many horses any more.

' ”You ride?

' ”T used to--when I was a child before my mother and father died.

And on and off since, if there was a horse which needed exercising.

' ”I've got a cottage in the Veluwe.

We go there sometimes in the autumn--with the children, of course; they ride quite well.

We might go for a week this year.

' Alethea said in a surprised voice: ”Oh, have you got another house as well as the .

one in Groningen?

' He said almost apologetically: ”It's really quite small, and I have

to have somewhere where I can keep the horses and the children's

ponies.

' Cottages and horses and ponies; he took them so very much for granted, but each one was a fresh surprise to her.

She had more surprises when they visited the solicitor, too--a

dry-as-dust old man with a bald head and pale blue eyes which were

still shrewd.

He received them in an office on the top floor of an old house in the heart of Groningen and offered them a gla.s.s of sherry while he and Sarre discussed money.

Presently Sarre turned to her, switching to English.

”The little matter of your allowance, my dear.

' He mentioned a sum which made her dizzy, and then went on to explain

about wills and bequests and funds.

”And I thought that next time we go over to England we might look around for a house--we'll put it in your name, of course.

' ”But why should I want a house?

' she asked.

”It will all come under the marriage settlements,” he told her

soothingly.