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home. The rest of the business * will have to be attended to at my office." *

As he rose to his feet and took up his case, he said, *

jlll Leonad thought it was a ost strange remark to IIIJI make. But he had to agree that it had not been a happy

J to Helen who was standing near the foot of John d, She'll sleep for a good twelve lope. What brought this on'

oved from the bed towards the window and wered T thinly famng snow beforc swered, The disclosure of my father's misr

thd a arge number oflocal tadesmen; oney owmg to fellow gamblers and to money Js who bitant interest. And he left no dgiie at all?"'

nly a letter. Vey brief, two lines to Beatrice " not repeat what the two hes were, because ned so mcredible in their subtle demand for e to clear up the impossible situation he had greater-than do mat caused Rosie to become hysterical? His Id a note of incredulity and she turned to him

of0 just that: she seemed to ve been ot all his misdeeds before the solicitor brought them into the open. And it wasn't just the nonej alone." She walked pst him now towards the doorl and he stopped her opeing it by aying quietl 'Well, his liaisons were not only public knowlede but food for parlour jolces, so I understand." He wa" I standing close behind her now when she swung round backslash to him and, in a low voice, exclaimed, "I don't kno I how she got to know iis. Nor do I understand why left-brace we were kept in the daric so long, because, apparently bar my mother suffered at his hands, too. Yet looking I back, it seemed to be a happy house. There was al-1 ways so much gaiety among us giris, and with

* mother too... Yes, that is strange, for she alone seemed to set the tone of o lives: she kept us happy bar and it wasn't until she died lat things changed, when bar one by one we expressed our desire to leave the :

house; except, that is, for Beatrice. Marion got away I at the same time as I did. She's in India now, you bar know, with her husband." He made no comment twt kept his eyes fixed on be her face as she went on, "And Rosie's going. She backslash won't be able to get away quickly enough from no J on." She moved her hand slightly in order to look towards the bed and sadly now, she added, "She was be

the happiest of us all. A tomboy, a chatterbox. Never be

still. But I was amazed at the change I saw in her backslash when we arrived three days ago.

She acted strangely, on the point of tears all the time and didn't want to talk. But now we know the reason why. What is more, she must have been very unhappy for some time. This I gauged from her letters."

"Are you happy?"'

*What?"'

was you happy?"'

iff"...iMore- his deep, piercing look for a moment l said slowly, "Yes, I am very happy. I...I Wi husband. He is a lovely man... a U;: held until the movement she made to SiSo" me oor caused him to step back. And yTT-TITI words he followed her out and onto Jand down the stairs, to where Leonard for them and said to her, "Teddy's just " Golding. He couldn't get here for the lie felt he had to come and pay his recc"s more, he has to be off again this eveis she? Can he see her for a moment?"' w addressing John. And John shook his d,

"I've had to sedate her; she was near *'i ne'll be all right tomorrow morning, but to keep her quiet for a day or two until she j*i the shock."

,i)- is Teddy?"' Helen asked her husband.

- has him in the drawing-room. We'd better S. and see him, dear, to explain things, because I iift; Beatrice is in a condition to entertain anythe moment, unless it is through blurting out iggw and blaming the world for her father's ji"disiri' He now turned to John, saying, "I'm sure coud do with a cup of tea or something before was out into that" comhe jerked his head back to the window. "It's getting thicker. Come into E32"'*- there's a fire there and the girls will bring

P"...@l hot drink' "n hesitated to follow him; in fact he was about

to make an excuse that a patient was awaitin hij when he caught Helen's eye: it was as if she wa bar saying, 'Please be friendy. He's a lovely.. 3less-than mi bar man. bar A few minutes later he was seated in a deep eather chair on the opposite side of the fireplace from eo"bar ard, although he found it impossible to open the con versation. Then there was no need, for the tall, ood looking soldier rose from his chair, saying on a laugh I asked if you'd like a hot drink then forgot to ring bar for it." He now pulled a cord to the side of the nre bar place before sitting down again and saying, "We've. never really met have we? Wat I mean is, weve never had the chance to talk. Yet, through Hele I seem to know a ot about you."

He found himself repeating inanely, "Through Helen?"'

es. Yes, she thinks you're a splendid doctor wi bar the right personality and all that goes to make... well, not exactly the bedside manner, but the sort of fellow who gives a patient confidence and assures him he's not going to die from a tickly cough." They bot laughed, somewhat embarrassed now.

After a short silence Leonard said, 'I suppose it s stupid to ask why you went in for doctoring? No; take that back, because I know only too well wb some of you go into it for, especially the surgeon just for the money. Here and there you get one wb0 sees it as a vocation, a duty to mankind. And this 1's le type we seem to get in the country."

You talk as if you'd had great experience w doctors."

'allyes. Yes, I have, unfortunately."

bar bar The Obsession 3 Ts eyebrows moved up slightly. "You've

* I on, the usual things that one picks up

'S5 malaria, fevers, this and that. But I've 1w treat men like cattle, while others, jp have fallen asleep across the foot of

J* ('oe But I have a good one now." iWill'

long have you been in the Army?"'

I s eighteen."

Jl!" gg together as John said, 'I take

**'dlere is a love i11 between you."

rSjSS, definitely. Add a little hate here and you'd be nearer the truth. I asked you why 11 doctoring. You didn't give me a reply.

*SS if it was the same way I got into the yae y father had been in it and you feel fonow in father's footsteps. Was your father A*" dg was a stonemason."

stonemason?"'

bar Ea a stonemason. He should have been called a lo because he could do anything with stone. But seeed happy unless he was hanging on by ,1 to a church tower, when he was replacing a " dg e or a gargoyle, or adding to a coping "be manner it had been worked two hundreds years *s11"

the door opened and Janie Bluett entered the IL Leonard said to her, "Do you think we could

,coma tray of tea, Janie, with a few eats too?"' He S thls a confidential, loud whisper, and she ia at as she said, "Of course, Mr Spears, and s of a lamb's tail."

The lamb's tail took five minutes over its

shakin @.
but then Janie brought in a large tray holding a tea i service, and behind her, Frances Middleton carried a I tray on which was an

assortment of scones and bis- @.
cuits. j After Leonard had thanked them both warmly, John left-brace smiled at him as he said

"With regard to a bedside t manner I am often accused of being too brusque, as I know I am with lead-swingers." I

Leonard was about to take the cosy from the teapot when he stopped and said, I hated my father at one time for encouraging me into the Army, but the day I got into my uniform he gave me a piece of advice:

"You'll see men," he said, "kicked around from dog to devil by their superiors. The bigger the bully, the louder the mouth, and the more hate they engender.

Be firm. Don't be familiar with men out of your class;

that is the way to lose their respect. But when you deal with them, deal with them fairly, remembering they are human beings. Remember that but for my position, and my father's, and his father's, you could today be one of them."

I leamt more rom that little speech than from all my years at public school, and from the floggings."

He now pointed to the tray of food: 'See what it's done for us in this case."

John sat looking at him. He was a likeable fellow;

there was no doubt about it. And Helen saw hi s a lovely man. It was a term Rosie had a habit of using too; at least she had up to now.

He was the kind of man a woman would find very attractive. But did Helen love him? She said she was happy. But it would be a very odd woman who couldn't be happy fli a man like this.

, point the door opened again, andwhen , Leonard cried, See! one can t get hve ,fc But he put down the teapot andw his arm about her shoulderhe ldo had vacated near the fire. Then, looking .

to the other, he said, "Oh, this is nice. It from the war zone. SO-BSERVED them he wondered wy he was there and listen to this fellow whom se r had envied and, indeed at tiroes hated.

81So il51i

sat behind the desk in her study. Spread out ii were papers of all shapes and sizes. She bar i"

elbow on the desk and cupped the side of in her hand and stared at the glass cabinet a bar 5 the while telling herself there was nothing disf- to do as the solicitor had advised: she must was of the land; perhaps as much as twenty disj' prices were now it would realise enough to " interest on the mortgage and clear the debts H"- father had accumulated; or at least the one i' loan company. The gambling debt was ques.l a matter of honour, Mr Coulson had called TTS also suggested that she cut down her staff ,L but she had stood out firmly against that: the staff represented prestige, and that was all she "

house and its prestige, and she was going to l") to it.

Oh, yes; yes, she was.

- began to look through the bills again. Leonard ID a number of them straight away. But since others had come flooding in, all back debts. were two amongst them that caused her teeth

*.i

almost to draw blood from her lips, for they from a fashionable shop in Newcastle. Two sepa bills for ladies" govns, and they wer dated eia months previous. Although she knew sfae had inher ited many of her father's traits, had ie been here less-than bar this moment she would have done him a physical y jury: she could see him standing at yon side of tig desk and hear his voice saying,

"You kow, you al rather extravagant regarding the housekeeping biBs bar ou'll have to learn how to manage Oetter." s

Over the past weeks she had learned a further hant bar son: so-called friends backed discreetly away nom bar the word "scandal" and all that was attached to it. S bar was now well knon in the vicinity that her father bar had left no will, but instead a mountain of debt. On top of this, what the solicitor was kind enough to call; his weaknesses had also been exposed, proof of which had straightaway shown itself when Dave Wallace's , wife arrived at the inn in a very dishevelled state and with two rising black eyes.

She now sat back in the chair. The house was vey quiet: she was alone; she did not consider the staff as occupying the house.

Rosie had gone to Newcastle, there to meet Edward Golding, who had come up from London to do business. He would be here for two days. pparently, had something special to say to Rosie, probably about the post he was hoping to get in Newcastle and wher they would live.

Something had happened to Rosie since she had been made aware of the real nature of her father. Although she herself was shoked and sickened by itl had not affected her to the same extent. But then, ot

i was always child-like and would never real life.

Ary-fairy was the word for her. bar pil23iaaa Beatrice was glad that when she a bar a' she would be living near at hand, because "Jp tilde she would feel isolated altogether. And ,bar So? her light character, she was fond of her; in .". her more than she did either Marion or bar pLike yes, Helen got on her nerves, and that lyL1' of hers too. Yes...

yes, he had been kind ae bills, but then he had plenty of money to do so. Yet she had earlier understood rich man. Oh, there were different degrees IS But Helen herself: oh no, she couldn't disddliSo never could. There was that something which gave off the impression that she was (less-than be. Perhaps it was just because she was taller good-looking. But, nevertheless, there was L that got under her skin and irritated her J tittte they met

I was a tap on the door and she called,

"Enter!" lijli!: Middleton came in carrying a silver salsaying, "Second post, miss."

em there." Beatrice pointed to a comer of lIl She gave the girl no thanks but went on J w later and with some reluctance that she 7 the letters. The first one, she knew, was an-5f billcomcombifls ad special envelopes.

She had come

Ililu that. But the second envelope she scru-comful"...-1 re carefully. Before reaching here it had ii deivered to two other addresses. She slit open y velope and saw immediately, from the heading,

*1 it was from a firm of solicitors. It began: Dear Colonel Steel, bar

Swiftly now she looked back at the envelope. It vy addressed to Colonel Steel, not to her father, but b"...ful her grandfather She went on reading. bar

bar

I have to inform you, sir, that your sister, Alice bar Benton Forester, died on the 17th February, at bar the amazing age of ninetyeight. We have had bar difficulty in tracing your address, as the only I thing she seemed to have remembered was your 1 name. She left no will, and the annuity that kept bar her in he home, of course, died with her. Her j possessions were few: a bracelet and a pendant 4

neither of which is of great value. But I will send were mem on to you, if you so wish. bar I met the lady on a few occasions but that was bar some years ago. She appeared to be a gentle bar creature, as apparently she did to the nursing bar home staff, who informed me that her records bar showed that her illness had changed since she was forty years old when her previous high spirits and hysterical outbursts, during which her one desire seemed to be to disrobe, and her fits, too, had gradually diminished. Apparently she had been a favourite among the staff.

She is being buried in the local cemetery and, as it is not expected you will be able to attend I shall follow your orders as to what is to be done with the few trinkets. I await your reply.

Yours respectfully Thomas Harding be flicked to the top of the page to read: r Bright Solicitors". There was aPahnouth down and to the side f the page.