A Star Looks Down Part 5

' She went scarlet and jumped out of the chair where she had perched herself.

"You know very well that I didn't mean anything of the sort," she declared indignantly.

"As a matter of fact, I didn't know you weren't married, although," she added honestly, "I thought perhaps you weren't.

' The profess or had got to his feet too, standing so close to her that she was forced to put her head back to see his face.

"Perhaps I won't do," she stated flatly.

He gave a crack of laughter.

"Of course you're going to do--the children will like you, I'm sure of it, and I could think of no one I would rather have to look after them.

You're a nice change from the usual girl.

Miss Partridge; it's pleasant to meet a girl who is different.

' He went back to his chair.

"And now sit down again, dear girl, here is tea at last, and if it makes you happier we will discuss the weather or some such topic, which will be very dull but should guarantee us not arguing.

' But there was no need for them to talk about anything as mundane; they fell to discussing books and music and a surprisingly large number of other subjects which they found they had in common, although Beth, munching her way daintily through anchovy toast, sandwiches and a rich chocolate cake, noticed that he kept the conversation impersonal; at the end of it she was just as ignorant as to where he lived in Holland and where he worked as she had ever been.

Not, she thought vaguely, that that mattered in the slightest, for he would be going back to his own country very shortly, no doubt, and it could be of no consequence to her where he went or what he did.

Tea had been eaten and cleared away before the children arrived back.

They came rus.h.i.+ng in, all talking at once and in Dutch, making a beelifs for their uncle, who sat back in his chair, apparently unworried by their delighted onslaught upon his vast person.

It was only after they had talked themselves to a standstill that he said in English: "I told you that while your mama was in hospital I would find someone to look after you all.

This is Miss Elizabeth Partridge, who will do just that.

Say how do you do and shake hands with her, if you pleas^-' He had told Beth that they were as disobed's"1 as most children, but not at that par tiC"!3!" moment they weren't. They came forward in turn to do as their uncle had bidden them, saying "How do you do?" and giving their names with almost old-fas.h.i.+oned good manners.

"How nice to meet you all," declared Beth, bearniog down at them all, 'and do you suppose that you might call me Beth?

I should much prefer it.

' The profess or had got to his feet; now he had ^one his duty in introducing the children to her it seemed that he now felt free to go.

"Why not?

' he agreed placidly.

"Do whatever MissP^ridge asks of you, my dears.

Now I have^ evening engagement and will bid you all good night, for you will be asleep by the time I get home.

I shall see you tomorrow, no d^bt.

' A STAR LOOKS DOWN Left alone with the children, Beth sat down again and invited them to tell her about theW selves, something they were ready enough to do and which gave her the opportunity to observe them rather more closely.

Dirk, the obvious leader of the quartet, was tall for his age, fair-haired and blue-eyed and thin as o^ly boys often can be.

Marineka, who came ne^i was blue-eyed and fair-haired too and almost as tall as Dirk, although a good deal plump^ and Hubert was nicely chubby too, with (he same ash-blond hair.

It was the littlest oX1^ Alberdina, who wasn't like any of them; ^he was short and decidedly plump, with lafg0 dark eyes and long brown hair.

She could be only just five, Beth decided, for she still htsd a babyish way of sidling close and holding any hand which happened to present itself, ^he was holding Beth's hand now, smiling up a^ her and saying something in Dutch.

"You have to speak English, Alberdina' Dirk told her, and then explained: "We ^ know how, because we had a nanny, but sh^'s married now, and Alberdina hasn't had a^ much time to learn it as we have.

' "You all speak English beautifully," Be?

the hastened to a.s.sure him.

"I only wish I coi/lld speak Dutch.

And now will you tell me wr^a1 you do now?

Have you had your tea?

A^"d what do you do before bedtime?" They all told her, so that it took her a little while to discover that they had their supper at six o'clock and then, starting with Alberdina, they went to bed Dirk last of all at eight o'clock. " Although sometimes I go to bed earlier than that," he took pains to tell her, 'so that I can read, and of course on Sat.u.r.days, while we are here with Uncle Alexander, we stay up later.

' "What fun why?

' "We go out with him in the afternoon, to the Zoo or for a ride in his car, and then we have tea somewhere special, and when we come home we play cards.

We're good at cards.

You play also?

' "Well, yes, though I'm not very good, I'm afraid, but I don't expect.

that is, I daresay your uncle would like to have you to himself.

' They all nodded agreement so cheerfully that she felt quite disappointed.

It was evident that they were on their best behaviour; they took Beth over the house, much larger than it looked from the outside, showing her everything, even the cupboards and attics.

They would have shown her their mother's room as well as their uncle's if she had given them the smallest encouragement.

She declined a conducted tour of the kitchen too, merely asking where it was, just in case she should need to go there, though that seemed unlikely because Mrs Silver, stopping for a chat when she came to call the children to their supper, informed her in a kindly way that she was expected to do nothing at all save be with the children.

"And a great relief that will be to us all, miss, if I might say so dear little things though they are and quite unnaturally quiet this evening, but that's because you're here.

It will be nice to be able to get on with our work knowing they're in good hands.

' With which heartening words, she nodded and smiled and went off to the kitchen.

Supper was in a small room at the back of the house, given up to the children's use while they were staying there.

It was a pleasant place, furnished comfortably and obviously well lived in.

Beth, presiding over the supper table, pouring hot chocolate and cutting up Alberdina's scrambled egg on toast into small pieces, found herself enjoying the children's company; it was a nice change to talk about fast cars, the dressing of dolls and the star foot ballers instead of the everlasting shop which was talked at the hospital, and even when she was home, William liked to tell her about his cases; many a meal she had eaten to the accompaniment of a blow-by-blow account of the appendix which had ruptured, the ulcer which had perforated on the way to theatre, the st.i.tching he had been allowed to do.

it was pleasant to forget all that and listen to the children's chatter.

To sit at such a table with children such as these, but her own, watching them gobble with healthy appet.i.tes, hearing their high, clear voices, would be wonderful, she thought wistfully.

She was deep in a daydream when she was roused by Hubert's asking why her eyes were a different colour from everyone else's.

"I don't really know," she told him. "It's just that they're mauve--everyone has different coloured eyes. . ." "We all have blue eyes,"

said Dirk, 'not Alberdina, of course, hers are brown, but Mama and Papa have blue eyes too and so has Uncle Alexander." "My doll, Jane, has brown eyes,"

Marineka tossed her fair hair over her shoulder. "It is to do with genes,"

she announced importantly.

Beth looked at the little girl with something like awe.

She hadn't known anything about genes until she was in the sixth form of the rather old-fas.h.i.+oned school her father had sent her to, but then of course she hadn't a doctor for an uncle and her father, moreover, hadn't held with girls knowing too much.

She said hastily, before she became involved in a conversation concerning genetics in which she felt reasonably sure she would make but a poor show: "Have you any pets at home?

' It was a successful red herring; there were several cats, all with outlandish Dutch names, and a dog called Rufus, as well as a tame rabbit or so, goldfish in a pond in the garden and a canary, although the latter belonged to someone called Mies whose function in their home was not explained to her.

It was an easy step from that for Dirk to describe his uncle's two dogs.

Gem and Mini, black labradors, and when Beth commented on their names, he gave her a sharp look.

"They're twins," he told her, and waited.

"Oh, I see--Gemini, the heavenly twins!

Very clever of someone to have thought of that.

' Her worth had obviously increased in his eyes.

"Not many people think of that.

Uncle Alexander has a cat too, called Mops and two horses as well as a donkey, and there's a pond with ducks.

We feed them when we go to stay with him.

' It would have been nice to have heard more, but what would be the good?

It would only stir up a vague feeling which she supposed was envy.

She suggested mildly that it was about time Alberdina went to her bed, and offered to help her take a bath, a suggestion which was received with such a lack of surprise that she concluded that the children were quite in the habit of having someone to look after them; no wonder the profess or had been so anxious to find a subst.i.tute for their mother.

By half past eight they were tucked up, the two boys sharing a large room next to her own, the little girls across the landing.

Beth, a little untidy after her exertions, retired to her room to change her sweater for a blouse and do her hair and face before going downstairs.

Mrs Silver had said dinner at half past eight, and she was hungry.

It was lonely, though, after the bustle and noise of the hospital canteen, sitting at the oval table in the quiet dining room, with only Mrs Silver popping in and out with a succession of delicious foods, accompanying each dish with the strong encouragement to eat as much as she could.

For I do hear that those hospitals don't feed their nurses all that well.

Stodge, I daresay, miss I don't hold with all that starch; here's a nice little souffle, as light as a feather even though I do say it myself, you just eat it up.

' She trotted off again, with the advice that she would bring coffee to the sitting room in ten minutes' time, and left Beth to eat up the souffle and then dash upstairs to make sure that all the children were asleep.

They were; she went down to the sitting room and drank her coffee, and then, feeling guiltily idle, went to examine the book shelves which filled one wall.

Early bed, she decided, and a book; there was a splendid selection for her to choose from.

She was trying to decide between the newest Alistair Ma clean and Ira Morris's Troika Belle, which she had read several times already, when she heard steps in the hall and turned, a book in each hand, as the door opened and the profess or came in.

He looked magnificent; a black tie did something for a man--it certainly did something for him.

Not that he needed it, for he had the kind of looks which could get away with an old sweater and shapeless slacks, though Beth very much doubted if he ever allowed himself to be seen in such gear.

"Presumably the sight of me has rendered you speechless," he commented dryly.

"T've wished you good evening twice and all I get is a blank purple stare.

' She put the books down and came into the centre of the room.

"I'm sorry.

I was thinking.

Is this your special room?