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"Oh no, no." Harry's tone was definite now.

"I don't want to talk to people, Robbie."

"But you've got to talk to people sometimes, Harry. Look, I've been wanting to have this out with you. You've got to talk to people, you've got to get out and mix. You've done a marvelous job here and you'll go on doing a marvelous job, but you're not in a monastery, man.

And that's how you've been living except for the one female here." He nodded towards his mother.

"He's right, Harry." Janet's voice was soft, and Harry turned and looked at her, and she said again, "He's right in all he says. He nearly always is. He knows what he wants, but he can't do it on his own. If you turn it down, it won't mean that he'll give up the idea, he'll only have to get somebody else, and they won't be one quarter as good as you."

Harry's chin was now deep on his chest and his voice was a thick mutter as he said, "It's all so one-sided."

"One-sided, be damned!" Robbie rose to his feet.

"I never do anything unless I think there's a good profit in it for me." He stabbed his finger across the table.

"Make no mistake about that. Anyway, man, your own sense should tell you I've been making a profit out of you for weeks; where would I get anybody to do the work you've done for six quid a week? You've put thousands on this place. Wait till that little squirt, Pearson, comes to value it the next time; he won't see it being two thousand down the drain, bet your life he won't, he'll be falling over himself to put up the premium; Well now, what do you say?"

It's settled then'. Everything you sell here we split the profit.

"

"But I know nothing about period furniture, Robbie."

"I've thought of that, and I bet when you get through the two dozen Apollo's I've got in the back shop you'll know twice as much as I do; then you can come to one or two sales with me just to get the feeling.

Look; what about coming down to the shop this mornin'? I got a load of stuff in on Friday. It's been knocked about a bit, but I'd like you to see it as it is afore it's done up. What d'you say?"

"There's the hall; if you want it finished I should be getting on with it."

"Look the hall can wait for one morning." Then, his voice dropping, he added, "You've got to come into town sometime, Harry, and this morning's as good as any."

Harry l6oked from Robbie to Janet, and she said quietly, "He's right.

Harry. "

An hour later when Harry, standing in the back shop, looked down on a jumble of chests of drawers, Victorian chairs with the stuffing sticking out, old fashioned couches and battered card tables he thought, I wouldn't give them house room.

Pointing to a couch, Robbie said, "You won't recognise that piece when you see it again, it'll be done in Regency stripe and be known as a chaise-longue. Thirty pounds, madam, very reasonable."

"Never!" said Harry on a small laugh.

"It's a fact. I'm teltin' you."

Harry shook his head.

"And wait until you see it against the dark panelling of that hall.

That's the setting for it. An' you needn't believe me, only time will tell, but in some cases that setting will double the price. "

Again Harry shook his head. It was all he could do.

It was just after twelve when they left the shop and crossed the market, and it wasn't until they turned the corner by the bank that Harry realised that he must pass Peamarsh's and the thought checked his step. It wasn't that he hadn't been aware of bow close he was to the office; all the way to town he had

listening to Robbie in the shop and sharing, in a way, his enthusiasm for the new venture had for the moment pushed Peamarsh's to the back of his mind. But now, there it was across the road, big letters heading a stone facade, and down the steps into the street almost opposite to him were walking three men, Arthur McMullan, Tom Vosey and a man who was a stranger to him.

Arthur McMullan stopped for a perceivable second, looked at him, then walked on; Tom Vosey paused a little longer, then he joined the other two.

Robbie looked at Harry. He was standing as if glued to the pavement.

If he had been facing the other way he could have pretended he was looking into the windows of Howard's the jeweller's, but he was standing half-facing the steps across the road, "Come on, man." Robbie touched his arm, and Harry allowed himself to be led away like a blind man.

They had gone but a short distance when there came hurried steps behind them and a voice said, "Just a minute."

They both stopped and Robbie turned, but Harry stood looking straight ahead.

"How are you. Harry?" Tom Vosey stood to Harry's side and Harry, moving his neck slowly round, looked at him and said, "Oh, I'm all right, Tom. How's yourself?"

"Fine, Harry, fine." Tom Vosey now glanced at Robbie, then back to Harry and his voice was tentative as he said, "Would ... would you care to come for a drink?"

"No thanks, Tom? I'm... I'm on a piece of business."

"Oh I' Tom nodded, again glancing at Robbie. Then he said, "

Everything all right with you. Harry? "

Splendid, Tom. "

That's good. I'll be seeing you around some time then? "

Yes, Tom, be seeing you some time. Goodbye. "

"Good-bye, Harry."

Tom Vosey went one way, Harry, accompanied by Robbie the other, and when they reached the end of the street and Harry hadn't opened his mouth Robbie said, "What about having a bite to eat in town?"

It was some seconds before Harry replied, "If it's all the same 185 "

it's U.

K.

with me; I always like me mam's cooking better than anything they give you in a restaurant. " He made the remark sound light but it fell flat.

In the car Robbie began to talk. He talked rapidly, asking himself questions and giving himself the answers, and all the while Harry sat silent, until they came within half-a-mile of where they turned off the main road into the lane. This stretch of the road was on an incline and had a sharp bend in it. It was when they were approaching the bend that Robbie cut off what he was saying to exclaim loudly, "Look at this madman tearing up here; he's passing two cars behind me and we're almost on the bend. God! will they never learn? You could wish something' would happen to teach him a lesson. An' look!" 1 His voice was even higher now drawing Harry's attention to the passing car.

"It's full of kids."

As the car passed him within yards of the bend Robbie blasted his horn once. He was about to do it a second time when his hand became still and he almost closed his eyes as he saw the car swerve quickly in front of him to avoid the oncoming bus. If he put on his brakes he knew the cars behind would pile up into him. He held his breath, kept his pace steady, and they were around the corner, the car full of children speeding away in front.

Harry was sitting on the edge of the seat now and he asked quietly,

"You all right, Robbie?"

"Aye. Yes, just." There was a slight quiver in his voice.

"But only just I'm tellin' you. That bloody, mad swine. God 1 if only I could get me hands on him. And the car full of kids. You saw them, there must have been six." As they turned into the lane he drew in another long breath;

then relaxing in his seat, he said, "You know what? I can tell you what's going t happen to that lot. Very shortly those kids are going to say, " Why are we wearing haloes. Daddy? " and Daddy 'll say, "

Because I was a clever bugger. " Why are we wearing haloes. Daddy?

Because I was a clever bugger. That was funny. And the way Robbie had said it. Oh, that was funny. Why are we wearing haloes, Daddy?

Because I was a clever bugger. Slowly Harry's shoulders began to shake,

chuckle came into his throat and when it passed through his lips it had turned into a laugh; and then it grew louder and louder.

When Robbie had seen that Harry was amused he had laughed too, but now his laughter had faded away because Harry's laughter wasn't merriment.

He wanted to say to him, "Give over man." The sound -was embarrassing, it was sort of hysterical. When Harry's hand groped out towards him and touched the wheel he stopped the car. And now, to his concern, he saw that Harry was no longer laughing, he was crying; the tears were spurting from his eyes and running over his spread fingers. His shoulders were hunched and his body was curved downwards. Robbie said quietly, "Aw, man, don't take on like that. Nothing's worth feeling that much over." He ended harshly, "You'll see your day with the lot of them yet, you mark my words."

When Harry groped at the handle of the door and, pushing it open, got out, he leant across the seat and said, "Where you going?" And Harry, unable to speak, pointed to the hill behind the house, and at this Robbie nodded at him, then watched him go round behind the car, jump the ditch into the field, then cross it.

When he drove up to the house Janet came to the door and, seeing him alone, asked anxiously, "Where's Harry?"

He pointed upwards over the house saying briefly, "He's gone up the hill."

"Up the hill?" Janet followed him closely indoors.

"Why's he gone up the hill?"

"He ran into some of his old pals near the market and they cut him, except one. He came back, but he made it as awkward as hell. I think it was the last straw. He broke down just along the road; I'd leave him until he gets over it."

Janet walked slowly across the hall, down the passage and into her own room, and there, sitting on the foot of her bed, she gripped the rail and laid her head against the wooden post. Would this make him leave?

Go away somewhere by himself, or perhaps with Gail and Mrs. O'Toole?

Either way it would be like death to her. She had never been so happy in her life

she was sick deep down in her soul, sick with fear that this wonderful existence--and to her it was a wonderful existence- was about to end.

She didn't know if Harry had any idea of her true feelings for him; she doubted whether he had because some men, good men like him, couldn't see what was under their noses. She lifted her head and stared at the wall and, like a moving picture, she saw her life in it;

all her young days subject to her parents' religious bias, her married life without joy, except when her son was born. He had been the only comfort she had had but it had never fceen enough, there was always a gap in her, and only one person could fill it.

She rose to her feet, opened the window and stepped over the low sill into the courtyard--she didn't want to run into Robbie at this moment.

She walked across the yard, through a gate in the rough fence, across the field and mounted the hill.

He was lying on the grass in the shelter of an outcrop of rock when she saw him, and she knelt by his side and touched his shoulder. It was a moment before he raised his head, and she was surprised by the look on his face. She had expected anguish, bitterness, anything but the calmness she saw there, and his voice too was calm when he said, "It's all right, Janet, it's over."

"They're nothing but a lot of nowts," she said.

"Aw, it wasn't only that. It had to come. It's as well it did. I feel better." He brought himself into a sitting position by her side and he stared across the valley for a moment before he said, "It's as if I've been swimming under water for years and at last broke surface.

I feel free, freer than I ever remember being before. Yet nothing has changed. It's funny, but I know this is another starting point and I won't go back. As Robbie said, I'll see me day with most of them. Not that I want that but ... but I want to get moving, do something." He looked at her and she asked in a voice scarcely above a whisper, "Does that mean you're going?"

"No, no." His reply came quickly.

"Robbie's given me a chance; I'm going to take it up, but in an entirely different way from what I expected to do this morning." He put out his hand

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done without you both. It frightens me remembering the state I was in a few months back and where I might have drifted if you hadn't been there that morning ... you've been a good friend, Janet."

They were looking straight into each other's eyes as she said, "I'll always be ready to be whatever you want me to be, Harry."

There was no mistaking the implication of her words. His eyes widened slightly. Janet and him. He'd never thought . Well, yes; years ago, his mam and dad used to chip him about Janet because he could never go out back or front without he ran into her, but he only took that as the result of the proximity of Janet living upstairs and they down and of sharing the same backyard. Anyway, she had married before him, and to an orthodox Jew. As he looked at her he saw her as she was when a young girl. There was the same look in her eyes. Poor Janet. And all these years coming back and forward to the house helping; he had never guessed. Well, now' that he had what about it? He was still married,"

wasn't he? But say he wasn't, then what about it? He received no answer to this, only another question. How would he like living without Janet now? And to this the answer came promptly, he wouldn't.

No, no, he wouldn't. Janet brought him a sort of peace, security; yes, that was the word, security, for although in the last half-hour he had come to know where he was going, he also knew he was a man who would always need security, the security of a home and a woman.

Apart from Gail it was almost three years since he had touched a woman and when Janet fell against him he held her stiffly until she began to tremble and to mutter his name over and over again. Then his arms tightened about her and he buried his face in her black shining hair, and there returned to him a feeling he hadn't known since the early days of his marriage. But the feeling was immediately punctured by the thought of Esther, and her moral point of view rose before him like a battlement through which a divorce would never penetrate.

SEVEN

For the second time within four days Esther Blenheim was experiencing a feeling that really terrified her, for she was being consumed by a rage that urged her to get something into her hands and smash it. All her life she had assumed a calm exterior. Daily small tribulations had never ruffled her; the greater issues occasioned by family life might have disturbed her inwardly but on the surface she appeared in control.