“Not far off.” She stretched as much as the cramped conditions would let her. “I’ll be glad to get back.”

“Have you been away long?”

“No, only one night. The dentist.”

Janet’s grey eyes ran over her thoughtfully.

“I should have thought it would be fun for you to get away now and again.”

Barbara put on her gloves. Her voice lacked colour.

“Oh, it can be fun, of course, but just now it happens that everybody I know is overseas.”

Janet was moved by the naïveté of this. Barbara was very young in some ways; nobody could be deceived by her ‘everybody’. It was obvious that what she meant was ‘my special somebody’.

Barbara became conscious of how her words had sounded, for she turned pink and said hurriedly:

“You do promise to come and see us, don’t you?”

“Of course, it’s awfully nice of you. As a matter of fact I shan’t be in Worsingfold long. I shan’t take more than a week’s holiday before signing on.”

“Let’s hope they don’t call you up for a bit after you’ve joined, for I should think you need more than a week’s holiday.”

“A fortnight or three weeks would be nice, but I’d like to get down to real war work. It’s nice to feel free now to do it. My boss was awfully old, and though not past his work, found it a bit heavy once his nephew, who was his partner, was called up.” Janet had quick movements, she swept round now to Barbara. “I can’t get over what you said about Sheila teaching. Apart from having heaps to do with the housework, and shopping, she’s not the type to teach.” She sighed. “I can see part of my holiday will be spent putting my family straight. Sheila must be talked out of that idea.”

“But it’s a promise,” said Barbara bluntly. “You can’t make her let Donald down like that. Iris is eight and ought to be doing some lessons. Donald was frightfully pleased when she promised. He’s been very disappointed she hasn’t been strong enough to start yet. You see, his wife died two years ago, and though he’s got an awfully good housekeeper called Gladys Batten, she hasn’t much time for Iris, though she says she adores her.”

A smile flooded Janet’s face.

“You don’t like Gladys Batten.”