There was another patient in the room, now, a man of about forty, well dressed, prosperous looking, secure, Lowry thought, in the comforting knowledge that here he would be getting the very best medical attention that money could buy.

Everything was like that about the office and the house as well—solid on a foundation of money, competence. Lowry looked at the address he had just taken down and went out across the broad verandah, which he took in more appreciatively now that the interview with Clayton was behind him.

In the garden, a good-looking woman in a light tan slack suit and a pretty little girl with long, braided blonde hair were standing deep in a small patch of vivid crimson poinsettias. As Lowry went down the stairs the child turned to look at him. She was blue eyed, tiny featured, an exquisite child. She smiled warmly at Lowry and he stopped to admire the lovely picture she made, standing there, tiny and fragile amidst the tall plants.

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“Would you like one?” the child asked simply in a sweet voice.

“I’d love to have one,” Lowry said.

The woman turned around to look at him carefully. She had a long, austere, thin-lipped face, attractive in a remote way but cold. And Lowry thought there was a sadness in the eyes which perhaps she was disguising with the coldness.

“Lovely day,” Lowry said.

“Isn’t it?” she replied with frosty but automatic politeness.

The little girl was coming toward him bearing a huge poinsettia. The woman watched her, seeming neither to approve nor to disapprove.

The child handed Lowry the flower.

“It is a lovely day, isn’t it?” she said softly, parrotlike.

Lowry took the flower and bowed low in front of the child. “Thank you most kindly, Miss,” he said graciously. “And you’re absolutely right. It is a lovely day.”

The little girl smiled brightly, showing pearly baby teeth. “I wish I was at the beach when the sun shines like this,” she said. “Then I could dig in the sand.”

“What would you dig for?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she replied without a trace of embarrassment or self-consciousness. “But there’s treasure in the sand, they say. Maybe I might find some treasure if I had good luck.”

“Well, then I hope you can go to the beach and find a wonderful treasure very soon.”

“Oh, I’ll be going before long,” the child said happily. “Mother says we can go to the house in Laguna just as soon as the weather gets a little bit warmer.” She turned to the woman for confirmation. “Didn’t you say that, mother?”

“Yes, dear,” her mother said. “But say goodbye to the nice man, now. You’d better come back and help me finish with the garden. It’s almost time for you to have your lunch.”