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What Sven did with himself in the evenings and on Sundays she had no idea. She learned from chance remarks that he had a flat somewhere in London and apparently lived alone, but he was unrevealing about himself. She suspected he was seeing Thomasina, but less often than that lady would like her to believe, from the hints she dropped, but he never mentioned her in Sonya's presence. Nor did he come to see her father, though she knew Eliot was hoping for a visit.

Therefore, one Sunday morning, returning from a walk on the Heath with Tessa, she was surprised to see his car parked in front of the house. Sunday being a free day she often took the dog for long rambles which they both enjoyed. Tessa was wet from running through damp bushes and Sonya took her into the kitchen to rub her dry.

'Mr Petersen is here?' she asked Mrs Matheson.

'Yes, he's been here some time, talking to the master.'

Sonya's heart sank. Sven must have come to complain of her lack of progress. If he gave her up she would lose all incentive and have to admit herself a dismal failure. But it was more than that; she did not think she could endure the club without his stimulating presence and she realised dimly how much he had come to mean to her.

'Mr Vincent asked if you would join them when you came in,' Mrs Matheson went on. 'I've made the coffee, perhaps you'd be good enough to take it in?'

'Very well,' Sonya agreed reluctantly, wanting to go away and hide. 'Keep Tessa here, she's damp.'

But that was easier said than done; the dog slipped through the kitchen door before she could be stopped and made for the sitting room, scratching at the paint and whining to be admitted. Sven opened the door before she could be retrieved and Tessa shot through it to greet her master as if she had not seen him for months. Sven took the tray from Sonya, carrying it to the table, after giving her a brief greeting. He was looking a little rueful, and Sonya's apprehension grew; he would not find it easy to tell her father that he wanted to find another partner.

She saw from the chair drawn up next her father's and the card table in front of him strewn with books and photographs that they had been going through Eliot's records. Her father looked pleased and happy, and her spirits revived. Perhaps Sven was only paying a social call after all.

Having finished her ovation, Tessa turned to Sven, but Eliot sternly bade her 'Go basket,' and for once she obeyed him. Sonya busied herself pouring out the coffee, and Sven handed Eliot his cup and pulled up a chair for her in front of the fire. She sat down, her face glowing from her exercise, a slim graceful figure in rust-coloured trousers and sweater.

'Was it nice on the Heath?' Eliot asked.

'Lovely. We had a pleasant walk.'

'All alone?' Sven asked, giving her father a significant look.

'No, I had Tessa.'

Eliot cleared his throat. We've been talking about that,' he told her. 'Sven thinks you're too much alone, you should get out more with young people. He suggests you have one night out a week, a theatre or even a dance, preferably on Saturdays.'

Sonya shot a glance at Sven's enigmatical face. What persuasions had he used to make her father relax his strict rules? Her own efforts had been completely unsuccessful. She became suddenly excited. Was he going to offer to take her, and would she at last be admitted to his private life? She could only conceive her father would give permission if Sven were to have charge of her.

'Thank you. Daddy,' she said. 'I'd enjoy a theatre now and again.' She hesitated. 'But I don't like going alone.'

'You will not be alone,' Sven announced.

Her heart leaped. So he was going to escort her and relax the formality of their present association. She looked down into her coffee cup to conceal the eagerness in her eyes. Sven went on:

'I have told your father that you have formed a friendship with an estimable young man at the club, who I am sure can be trusted to take care of you. Naturally he would not wish you to wander round town without an escort.'

Sonya flushed with indignation and disappointment. So Derek was to be brought in to act as her nursemaid! She knew he would jump at the chance to take her out, he had so often asked her and she had been forced to refuse, but that Sven should have talked her father round behind her back and calmly propose that she should be handed over to Derek as a young man who could be relied upon filled her with rage.

'Since when have you had the right to vet my friends?' she asked Sven, with difficulty controlling her anger. She turned to her father. 'Aren't you afraid of a romantic entanglement?'

'I have assured your father you are not enamoured of the young man,' Sven said calmly.

'Oh really, and what do you know about my feelings?' Sonya burst out, wondering if she dare state that she was crazy about Derek. 'I suppose I've to thank you for this ... this concession, but I prefer to choose my own escort.'

Eliot moved uncomfortably. 'It's not without misgivings that I've given my consent,' he told her. 'But as you told me once yourself, you're not in purdah. You'll have to learn to cope with admirers, of which you'll have many when you're a skating star, but I trust you to be discreet and to always put your career first.'

'Of course I will, Daddy, and thank you very much. I'm sure Derek will be pleased to accompany me wherever I want to go, he's often asked me, but I don't see why Mr Petersen had to come in on it.' She shot a baleful glance at Sven. 'Do you have to be guided by him in whatever concerns me?'

Eliot frowned. 'Yes,' he said, 'he understands your problems better than an old hermit like I am can. You should be grateful to him for his interest in you.'

Still smarting for being foisted on to Derek, Sonya felt no gratitude towards Sven, and his complacent expression annoyed her still more.

'I didn't think Sven's interest extended beyond the rink,' she said coldly.

'Oh, it does,' Sven declared. 'I want to see you behaving like a normal young woman and enjoying your leisure. I would offer to escort you myself, but I have promised your father I will come and keep him company while you are out. I understand he is used to having you with him in the evenings.'

Sonya was instantly mollified. Sven was exceedingly thoughtful; not only had he procured for her a free evening a week, but he had offered to stay with her father so she should feel no qualms about leaving him alone. One glance at Eliot's beaming face showed how much the arrangement pleased him. He had taken to Sven and she suspected the bribe of his society had done much to win his consent. Bribe? Who had used that word? Thomasina. But it was impossible to credit that Sven had any mercenary motive by ingratiating himself with Eliot.

'That is good of you,' she exclaimed, her eyes shining. 'But ... every week? Won't your girl-friend object?' It was a deliberate attempt to draw him with regard to Thomasina, but Sven merely smiled blandly and said:

'She will survive.'

'Girl-friend?' Eliot looked surprised. 'Has Sven got a girl-friend?'

'Nothing serious,' Sven told him.

'I don't understand this girl-friend, boy-friend business,' Eliot said fretfully. 'In my day we only took a girl out if we had intentions, matrimonial or ...' he grinned wickedly, 'otherwise.'

By his own admission Sven's intentions towards Thomasina were 'otherwise', but Sonya derived no comfort from that. Thomasina was quite capable of making him change his mind. She noticed her father was looking a little flushed and said quickly:

'Daddy you've talked too much, you're tired. I'm sure Sven will understand.'

'And it is time I was off.' Sven stood up. 'Thank you for a most pleasant chat, Mr Vincent. I will see you next Saturday, and you at the rink on Monday, Sonya. No, do not bother,' as she moved towards the door. 'I can find my own way out.'

When he had gone, Sonya looked at her father.

'He bullies me,' she said, 'but I won't have him bullying you. Are you really happy about this arrangement?'

'Perfectly. Sven talks much good sense and I shall look forward to his coming again.'

He seemed to have fallen as much under Sven's influence as she was herself, but she was not sure she approved of her release on these terms. It was a little wounding that Sven did not mind handing her over to Derek, for he was in love with her if she were not with him, and if Sven was in the least interested in her personally he would show jealousy. But he was not, only in her skating, and he imagined
a wider experience would improve it. She sighed and supposed she would have to contrive a tactful way to obtain theatre tickets so that Derek would not have to always pay for her. She rather wished Mr Sven Petersen would mind his own business.

On Monday morning she was
a little early at the rink. Jan was waiting for her, but Sven had not yet appeared.

'You are very fortunate,' he told her solemnly, 'that Mynheer Petersen has taken you under his wing. It seems you are en rapport, which is better than I expected. Together you will scale the heights.'

Sonya thanked him and then voiced the doubt which had occurred to her, for though she was accustomed to leave all arrangements to others, it would seem something had been overlooked.

'Shouldn't he have chosen a Swedish girl?'

Jan looked puzzled. 'You mean because he originally skated with his sister? But you must know that Sven ...'

'Did I hear my name?' Sven had glided up beside them, and as usual when she first caught sight of him, Sonya's heart seemed to jump, stop and then begin to palpitate.

'Sonya fancies she has found a problem,' Jan began.

'Sonya should know she can leave all problems to me,' Sven returned. Then he noticed her pallor. 'Are you all right?'

'Oh, quite.' She was feeling off colour with the beginnings of a headache, but after Sven's contemptuous remark about feminine excuses, she would not admit it. But try as she would, she flagged, and after a while Sven suggested they should break off for a cup of tea which might revive her. Thankful for the respite, Sonya took off her skates and they went along to the canteen.

The big room was deserted except - to Sonya's dismay - for Thomasina, who was seated on a bar stool flirting languidly with the barman. She was wearing pale blue trousers with an expensive blue and white sweater, and her hair was arranged in careful disorder. If she were waiting in the hope of waylaying Sven, she was disappointed, for he merely gave her a friendly nod and taking Sonya's arm, piloted her to a distant table. A waitress appeared at once, nobody dreamed of keeping Sven waiting, and he ordered a pot of tea for two.

'I'm surprised you like tea,' said Sonya. having an idea that Continentals were not partial to that beverage. She felt self-conscious, and it was something to say. She was rarely alone with Sven without a third person being present.

'Why should I not?' he returned in his precise English. 'I have been in England some time and I have acquired the habit.'

'I thought you'd been mostly in America.'

'They drink tea too,' he said, smiling. 'I have been in a great many places, you might call me cosmopolitan.' She knew his triumphs had been mainly overseas.

'But you were brought up in Sweden?' she asked, anxious to learn all she could about him since he seemed in an expansive mood.

'I was educated at Uppsala University. My father wanted it, as he considered Swedes. have a higher standard of education than over here, and they certainly work harder, but I was born in Britain. I am half English.'

Sonya was surprised; he had always seemed to her to be very foreign with his formal manners and speech. She was about to ask him which parent had been British, though since he bore a Swedish name it must have been his mother, but that was nothing to go upon. It might not even be his own, and public performers often assumed foreign names as so many English dancers used to take Russian ones. But just when she felt she was beginning to discover his origins, the waitress brought their tea and in her wake Thomasina came strolling towards them carrying her half filled glass. Sven sprang politely to his feet and she gave him a coquettish smile, completely ignoring Sonya, and sat down at their table as if she had every right to be there.

'Where were you yesterday morning?' she asked. 'I came here hoping for our usual game of squash, but there was no sign of you.'

Sonya's head began to throb as she thus revealed that Sven was in the habit of meeting her at the club on the one day when she herself was absent. Mechanically she poured out the tea. But as he reseated himself, Sven contradicted the implication.

'I did not expect it to be a permanent arrangement, Thomasina, and I had another engagement,, but I am sorry if you were disappointed.'

'You're always disappointing me,' Thomasina declared peevishly. 'And for heaven's sake don't call me Thomasina. I'll never forgive my parents for labelling me with that absurd name. My friends call me Tom.'

'It is original,' Sven observed. 'Are not you working today?'

Thomasina shrugged. 'You can see I'm not. I can afford to pick my engagements. I came along hoping you would take me out to lunch when you're through.'

'I am afraid that will not be possible.'

'Oh, Sven!' The round blue eyes were full of reproach. 'You break off for lunch, surely, and you can extend your lunch hour for once. I'm not always free.'

'Sonya is not feeling well,' Sven told her. 'I shall be taking her home.'

'Oh, no, please,' Sonya protested. 'I'll be quite all right. I can't go home in the middle of the day because Daddy would be upset thinking I'm ill when I'm not.'

'There, you see,' Thomasina declared triumphantly. 'There's a rest room in the club; she can lie down there, and you won't mind, will you, Sonya?' For the first time she glanced at the other girl.

'But I mind,' Sven said firmly, glancing in his turn at Sonya's pale face and shadowed eyes. 'I am afraid I have been working her too hard and it is up to me to look after her.'

Thomasina gave her a look of pure hate.

'Pampering the millionaire's daughter,' she sneered.

Sonya was pleased by Sven's consideration, but she did not like being regarded as
a
duty, especially if he wanted to go with Thomasina.