At last—

‘Neither can I,’ she said in a low voice. She liked Toby, and did not mind her knowing that she was failing to make an orderly life at the cottage. Toby understood and was sorry.

‘It’s them being so near, isn’t it?’ said Toby. ‘They can pop in any time.’

‘They do. It’s awful. And they are so boring. I really believe Belinha isn’t all there.’

‘Soppy thing,’ said Toby, viciously wiping a jug. ‘Never says a word. I do hate that sort; you never know what they’re thinking about. Sly, Mum calls them.’

‘She’s very beautiful,’ said Sophia, anxious to be fair.

‘So is auntie’s old cat,’ retorted Toby, who produced this imaginary feline as an illustration whenever she wished to imply that she disagreed with a remark, but was too polite to say so.

‘Don’t you think she is?’

‘Anyone can be beautiful if they’ve got enough money,’ said Toby with truth.

‘Harry thinks she is, anyway.’

Harry was so much in love with the silent Belinha that he could talk of nothing else. He was lost in a romantic thicket of red roses, music, nightingales. He had no idea what she thought of him, and he lived on hope and dreams. Belinha might not be all there, but she had at least learned that when a girl is as beautiful as she was, she need only be silent, and a lover’s imagination will do the rest.

‘Well, there’s one comfort; she and the Aunt don’t talk too much,’ said Sophia, carrying plates across to the cupboard. ‘If they both talked as much as Juan, I don’t know what I’d do.’

‘Puts you in mind of the parrot house at the Zoo, doesn’t he,’ agreed Toby. She put her arm round Sophia’s waist and said coaxingly, ‘Listen, dear, won’t you come down to Rozanne’s tomorrow afternoon and let me wave your hair nicely? It would make such a difference, you don’t know.’

Sophia laughed. She thought that it probably would, but did not say so.

‘And pluck your eyebrows. Will you? Do! I’ll be ever so careful.’

‘Toby dear, it’s sweet of you, but I don’t think I will. I should feel so unlike me.’

‘A nice, soft, deep wave!’

‘Some day, perhaps. We’ll see.’

At ten o’clock the dog Taffy came scrabbling at the door for his drink of water, and stayed for a few moments, staring disdainfully into the empty grate. Dan the Airedale went past on his nightly walk, accompanied by his master and the usual roars of ‘Dan! Come here, sir, confound you!’ The Vale did all the usual things which it did every evening before it went to bed; but half past ten struck from the church tower on the hill; and Francis had not come.

Saying crisply that she wouldn’t half give him the rounds of the kitchen when he rang up tomorrow, Toby kissed Sophia good night, and went home.

Sophia knew that Harry and Francis did not go about with Juan only because he had a car and helped them to have a good time. They said that they liked him; and he was likeable … if one did not mind his insensitiveness and the fact that he talked too much. She decided that he had achieved the life of ‘sensation rather than thought’; and as he had no nerves he was a restful companion for her nervous and over-sensitive brothers. He was good natured, and an emphatic yea-sayer; and the society of such people can be most stimulating and pleasant.