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He swung round and "at her; but he couldn't see her face, for she leading over the calf and saying,

"As it's a bull, on't have to shoot it, will you?"'

ot it?"' His voice was loud. 'Good gracious! no. Bhim up and let him out for breeding, more

'I'm glad of that; I can't bear the thought of i[ going to market."

"Mine never go to market."

"The hens and ducks do."

"Oh, well" comhe wagged his head- "only when they're vey old."

"I don't know how you can kill a chicken, or a duck, or a goose, when you love animals so."

"Oh, Rosie! I'm not feeling inclined to give you a lecture on life and the sustaining of it.

But what I do want to know is why you are glum these days? Anything wrong over the wall?"'

"No; only that Helen will soon be gone and the Marion wil follow, and I'll be left."

"With only me?"'

She turned now and laughed at him and at the face he was pulling, and she said, "Yes; and isn't that pros pect awful? Only you!" Then she thrust her hand out towards him as if pushing him away, saying, "Oh, you'll always be there, or here."

It was a moment before he answered her, when he said,

"Yes, Rosie, I'll always be there, or hereWhere you off to now?"'

"I'm going home; it will soon be teatime. But I'o not going by the front road or the river track, I'l1 going to cross the fields and up the pine walk. B seeing you."

He didn't answer but stood watching her walk t the far end of the grounds, climb the fence, then cros! the field. And he remained so until she had disap peared from his view.

There was something wrong with her, somethio! on her mind. He knew his Rosie. Oh yes,

he kn

bar bar The Obsession 37 bar tosie. But his Rosie didn't know him, not yet at ead of going straight to the house, Rosie made e gazebo that lay beyond the tennis court, and bar slie sat down. She wished she had someone to
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greater-than . But whom could she confide in about this bar bar bat was on her mind? Because she might be 1 But then again she knew she wasn't wrong.

H put her fingers between the slats in the seat ipped te wood. Life wasn't nice; but it had bar antil recently. Although she knew er father bar Robbie, and Beatrice, too, disliked him almost Bch, that had been something else, and she had bar with it.

But this other ting was something new

**aga-

turned her head quickly now as te sound of 2-his footsteps came to her from behind the be,, with Helen's voice saying, "Let's stand be"'*jletter' Marion, because you know Beatrice: she's

4 in the back of her head at least when she's

. end of the balcony. And if she sees us and talking she will want to know what it Ar about... You say you would like us to have disa wedding, Marion?

fes wou' Helen. Anything to get away. I JS3UI from Harry yesterday. He said there's 2' of his being sent to India early next IP he wants to come down and see ather. And y up till recently I didn't really know how I I him; but after his letter I... well I know now him.

And he thought of going away to

sJi him, or to follow him out or just to be married to him. has become exciting. I could g new life opening out for me." There was a pause.

" you love Leonard?"'

There was another pause before Helen's ig came,

'Who could help loving Leonard? He's so right-brace A so good, so caring."

"Yes. But do you love him, Helen?"'

"Oh. Oh, yes, I love him... Yes!"

comthe voice louder now- "I love him. I'm going to marry aren't I? I love him."

There was another silence before Marion asked Would you put it to Father about us having a double wedding? I'll be nineteen next month, so it isn't as if I'm a ehild. And I know something and I thin you know the same thing, that Beatrice will be glad to see the back of both of us."

Rosie now turned and stared at te wooden partion that separated her from the others as she heard Helen say, 'But what about Rosie? She'll be le."

"Oh. Well, it mightn't suit Rosie, Helen, but it'll suit Beatrice, 'cos if Beatrice likes any one of us s Rosie.

Odd, but I always thought she's treated tQuite as the child she'll never have. She'll not let Rosi go easily. And Rosie, somehow, is still so young for her age."

"Oh, I don't know so much about that; shes on eighteen. And remember the garden party and Teddy Golding? He's very smitten with her, and she ms him, too. And don't forget he's been down four times since. Of course, me last time he didn't see her vheo she supposedly had measles mat tued out not to b measles after all. And he would get Father's permission all right because me Goldings are very wel off S bar so connected. What's more, he's in the to greater-than Service. That sounds good at the tea table Gentlemen's Club. Anyway, what do you stbar bar * do Leonard did suggest we be married il. ut I pushed it on to Easter. He thinks

1 sent abfoad and y he wanted to I would be with him... Oh, I think it will

forof us. But wouldn't it be better Ipii- of us were to go up the aisle on the same T! that would be possible I'm sure if it wasn't dear older sister."

J- Yes, it could be." This was Marion's voice she added, 'Oh, how she gets on my nerves house. The house. Father's got a mania for she's got a mania for the house. She's like disfliPW, I wouldn't be surprised to see her going jCW a feather duster one of these days. How iit was when Mama was alive, and different niMi Grandpapa and Grandmama were still were- was good then, wasn't it, Helen?"'

1 Yes, Marion; looking back life was good T"...T! we all seemed so young and untroubled. after Grandpapa went we could still laugh uim and Robbie next door. But it didn't seem lo long."

beciJl a rustle n the grass, Rosie almost sprang

P" e gazebo, landed on her toes for a moment to - a grating noise with her feet as if she were down the gravel path. But when she rounded bar be the sisters were no longer there. Helen was towards the house and Marion was making ?"' rose garden.

i she had first sat in the gazebo she had felt sad and worried, but now a sense of desolation wa added to these feelings. Helen and Marion wanted were get away. Well, they weren't the only ones; she, too wanted to get away. Oh yes, she did, even more'tha" they, but for different reasons. She had made arrane ments to meet Teddy on Saturday and should his manner be anything like her sisters had prediced she would in ndg y repulse him. Oh no! And it woudn' only be to get away from here, but because she liked him. Did she love him? Yes. Yes, she thought disshe loved hi too, and she would give him an indiciition of it on Saturday. Oh yes, she would. She woud.

Ihurch bells had been ringing for the past halfeopl were passing the surgery window on ay lo the church, many of them intending just d ouside to see the Steel girls emerge after Mible wedding. It was quite an event, two sising married together, with the youngest sister s bridesmaid.

n this bells had stopped ringing, John lay back revolving leather chair and closed his eyes But ven then he could visualise it all: Helen Iking slowly up the aisle now on the left arm athcr. with Marion on his right. The grooms iting, standing beyond the first pew, lancd at the clock. It was half-past ten in the I. On an ordinary day there would still be paailing in the other room, but today there was t on. He knew it was Ethel Hewitt, for her stick bar But beating its usual tattoo of impatience on the floor.

Bforcd himself up from his chair and opened the "Good morning, Ethel. Will you come in?"'

pt before time an' all Doctor, and the place empty. As she hobbled past him and took a seat bar one side of the desk, she added, "It's a wonder you'Knowledge not along there with the rest of the daft

'uns. They 1 don't know what's coing to them, they don't. A bed of roses, they think. But just you wait, they'll get their

eyes opened. Rich and poor alike, it's all the same." " 'allyou're a born pessimist, Ethel." J "I'm not from there Doctor. What makes you say 1 that? I was taken for a Lancastrian once, but I'm Dur- bar hana born and bred." bar Another time he would have laughed, but not to be

day. "How's your leg?"' he said. :

"Well, I've still got it on," she said.

"That's fortunate." , "Why aren't you along there?"' bar "Well now, I ask you, if I was along there how could I see to you. And anyway Doctor Comwallis had to be there; he brought those two young ladies * into the world and-"

"Aye," she interrupted him, "and he's going to see tilde them out of it, but in a different way,

'cos they're bar going into another world. You know that, don't you? But then you don't because you've never been mar- 3 ried.. dish you? I have three times. You can't tell e " anything about marriage. If I had that kind of brain I :

coud write a story."

'Without... that kind of brain, you could still write i a story, Ethel. Anyway, come on, let me have a loo

at your leg.".....

ifteen minutes later he escorted Ethel to the surgery door with the usual warning. "Keep off it as uch as you can. Rest it; if not you're in for trouble I've told you." i

and I've heard you. What d'you expect me around on one leg, with eight grandbaims at a times of the day and sometimes the n a lucky woman, you know."

5" was about to step into the street she paused, "

were' head round towards him and her thin wrin-i -- took on a smile as she said, 'Aye, I know

5So in a way, 'cos to speak plainly, all the

1"" (ne or two dg mem etter man meletter isn't that I'm soft with them either. ii'iVery backsides, then end up makin' them tafF hear her still chuckling as she hobbled (T- empty street that led to the church.

So'" Comwallis was in the habit of iterating

"i one time, there hadn't been a house or cottage

?"'" " i the church and this his family home, that

disless-than was back for almost three hundred years. When tTi first heard this remark he had laughingly was "Well, it's time it was seen to here and there,

beity think?"' but afterwards knew he had made

- mistake when his superior had no conversaSi him other than about medical matters for "dis a week.

ldWi and waiting room were cut off from ,bar l"...i house by a long passage and as he locked of the surgery, there appeared at the end of

""jjir e fiS1 0 a woman. Her appearance a?"'11" stiffen slightly, and before she could ap i him he said "You're too late, Mrs Wallace;

,.eabar 1 urgent call." ,a walked towards him saying now, "It's just

something for me stoach, Doctor. I... I can't go, yo know."

"Well, I couldn't see to you in any case, Mrs Wal- be

lace; you're Doctor Comwallis's

patient."

"Yes, I know. But the old fellow's at the wedding isn't he?"' She grinned at him. And I thought you " might oblige. You see, I haven't been for days." be

"Another few hours won't hurt you. And as I said I've an urgent call." : She was standing right in front of him blocking the way out.

"I could go to Mrs McDougal, but the doctors don't i ie that, do they?"' *

"Well, that's up to you, Mrs Wallace, You kno

at happened the last time you went to Mother McDougal. She certainly made your bowels work

* didn't she?"'

he woman made no reply for a moment, but hitched up her breasts with her forearm and, her man er changing from its fawning style and her voice now without its pleading note, she said, You know what you are Doctor?"' j

'ationo! What am I, Mrs Wallace?"' I

"You're a nowt. You're a snot and you're out o bar place here. You ought to go back to where you carne be

om, because you don't fit in. Never did and neve will." And on (his she pursed her lips and wrinkled be

her nose so much that, for a moment he tought s was going to spit at him. Then she turned and flounced along the passage, leaving him standing : where he was. And in ths moment he felt she was be right for he didnt fit in, and he longed to be bac where he ame from, to where people did not coffl6

ffTS-NOT of dirt. But he had but his boats,

* to the weight of the practice was this great S him that had resulted from two short me nrst o which had been on a mere in-

"i his shoulders and went out into the walked in the opposite direction from the

his weekend off, and so he took he train to , ySo and from the station a two-mile walk T him to his aunt's cottage, where his mother i for him.

She was standing outside the W she called to him over the distance: 'Look!

less-than s sne ec one nanc 0111 tne PP0 : railings, she wobbled and laughed; and when er an less-than P11 nls arms ner' e said,

,2' a length of railings. But you're looking fine.

the same?"'

Physically I'm heaps better, although menul much worse." She was laughing at him.

r on with you."

J,; his arm around her waist now as he led her path towards the ivy-covered cottage. 'I'm to death, Johnny," she said quietly. "If we were town it wouldn't be so bad; but what do I see Cows, sheep, goats, a stray fox. Oh!"

comshe ,3 her head now- great excitement last week. ,bbi- was a travelling fair. I didn't even see that,

* ut near hurdy-gurdy from here." bebb55l the cottage, he looked about him and said, s Aunt Ada?"' bebar 2lLike she decided to go into town.

She wanted

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