فصل 02 - 03

We were now entering the High Street and Dr Griffiths’s sister, Aimee, called out to us, ‘Hello, you two. Beautiful morning, isn’t it?’ She had all the confidence that her brother did not have and she was good-looking in a strong outdoor way. ‘Megan, I’m so glad to see you,’ she said in her deep voice. ‘I want some help addressing envelopes for the Red Cross.’

Megan said something I could not hear, leant her bicycle against a wall, and went straight into a shop.

‘She’s a strange child,’ said Miss Griffith. ‘Very lazy. She needs an interest in life.’

I thought that was probably true. But I also felt that if I were Megan, I would have said no to any of Aimee Griffith’s suggestions.

‘Laziness is so wrong,’ continued Miss Griffith, ‘particularly in young people. Megan isn’t even pretty. And she is very stupid. Of course it would be boring if we were all the same, but I don’t like to see anyone not enjoying their life. I enjoy my life and I want everyone else to. I’m always busy, always happy!’

Suddenly Miss Griffith saw a friend on the other side of the street, and with a shout, she ran across the road, leaving me free to continue on my way to Messrs Galbraith, Galbraith and Symmington.

I was shown into Richard Symmington’s inner office. Watching the lawyer as he bent over the documents I had brought, I thought that if Mrs Symmington had experienced a very difficult first marriage, she had certainly chosen safety for her second. Richard Symmington was an example of calm respectability. He had a long neck, a long expressionless face and a long thin nose. A kind man, no doubt, a good husband and father, but not a man to make a heart beat faster.

We quickly settled the matter I had come to ask him about and as I got up I said, ‘I walked down the hill with your stepdaughter.’

For a moment Mr Symmington looked as though he did not know who his step-daughter was, then he smiled. ‘Oh, yes, of course, Megan. We’re trying to find something for her to do - yes. But of course she’s still very young. And some people think that she’s not very clever.’

I left through the outer office where a middle-aged woman with a big nose and large glasses was working at a typewriter. If this was Miss Ginch, I agreed with Owen Griffith that any s@xual relations between her and her employer were very unlikely.

I went into the street and looked around, hoping to see Joanna with the car. The walk had made me very tired. But she had not arrived yet.

Then suddenly my eyes widened with surprise and delight. Along the pavement there came floating towards me a goddess. There is really no other word for it. Her perfect face, the curling golden hair, the tall beautifully shaped body! And she walked like a goddess, without effort, coming nearer and nearer.

I was so excited that I dropped one of my sticks on the pavement, and I nearly fell down myself. It was the strong arm of the goddess that caught and held me.

‘Thanks so much,’ I said. ‘I’m very sorry.’

Then she handed me the stick, smiled kindly and said, ‘That’s all right. It was no trouble, I promise you.’ And the magic died completely with the sound of her very ordinary voice. She was a nice healthy-looking girl, nothing more.

Joanna had now driven up and stopped in the road beside me. She asked if there was anything the matter.

‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘I’ve had a shock, that’s all. Do you know who that is?’ I pointed to the girl’s back as she floated away.

‘That’s the Symmingtons’ governess.’ Joanna opened the door of the car and I got in. ‘It’s funny, isn’t it? Some people have the most perfect looks and absolutely no s@x appeal.’

I said that if she was a governess, having no s@x appeal was probably a good thing.