was coming by the 3. 18. Tony and John Andrew were there early. They wandered about the station looking at things, and bought some chocolate from a slot machine. The stationmaster came out to talk to them. "Her ladyship coming back today?" He was an old friend of Tony's. "I've been expecting her every day. You know what it is when ladies get to London." "Sam Braces wife went to London and he couldn't get her back. Had to go up and fetch her himself. And then she give him a hiding." Presently the train came in and Brenda emerged exquisitely from her third class carriage. "You've both come. What angels you are. I don't at all deserve it." "Oh, mummy, have you brought the monkey-lady?" "What does the child mean?" "He's got it into his head that your chum Polly has a tail." "Come to think of it, I shouldn't be surprised if she had." Two little cases held all her luggage. The chauffeur strapped them on behind the car, and they drove to Hetton. "What's all the news?" "Ben's put the rail up ever so high and Thunderclap and I jumped it six times yesterday and six times again today and two more of the fish in the little pond are dead, floating upside down all swollen and nanny burnt her finger on the kettle yesterday and daddy and I saw a fox just as near as anything and he sat quite still and then went away into the wood and I began drawing a picture of a battle only I couldn't finish it because the paints weren't right and the grey carthorse the one that had worms is quite well again." "Nothing much has happened,". said Tony. "We've missed you. What did you find to do in London all this time?" "Me? Oh I've been behaving rather badly to tell you the truth." "Buying things?" "Worse. I've been carrying on madly with young men and I've spent heaps of money and I've enjoyed it very much indeed. But there's one awful thing." "What's that?" "No, I think it had better keep. It's something you won't like at all." "You've bought a Pekingese." "Worse, far worse. Only I haven't done it yet. But I want to dreadfully." "Go on." "Tony, I've found a flat." "Well you'd better lose it again quick." "All right. I'll attack you about it again later. Meanwhile try not to brood about it." "I shan't give it another thought." "What's a flat, daddy?" Brenda wore pyjamas at dinner, and afterwards sat close to Tony on the sofa and ate some sugar out of his coffee cup. "I suppose all this means that you're going to start again about your flat?" "Mmmm." "You haven't signed any papers yet have you." "Oh no." Brenda shook her head emphatically. "Then no great harm's done." Tony began to fill his pipe. Brenda knelt on the sofa, sitting back on her heels. "Listen, you haven't been brooding?" "No." "Because, you see, when you say 'flat' you're thinking of something quite different to me. You mean by a flat, a lift and a man in uniform, and a big front door with knobs, and an entrance hall and doors opening in all directions, with kitchens and sculleries and dining rooms and drawing rooms and servants' bathrooms... don't you, Tony?" "More or less." "Exactly. Now I mean just a bedroom and a bath and a telephone. You see the difference? Now a woman I know-" "Who?" "Just a woman-has fixed up a whole house like that off Belgrave Square and they are three pounds a week, no rates and taxes, constant hot water and central heating, woman comes in to make bed when required, what d'you think of that?" "I see." "Now this is how I look at it. What's three pounds a week? Less than nine bob a night. Where could one stay for less than nine bob a night with all those advantages. You're always going to the club and that costs more and I can't stay often with Marjorie because it's hell for her having me and anyway she's got that dog, and you're always saying when I come back in the evenings after shopping, 'Why didn't you stay the night,' you say, 'instead of killing yourself?' Time and again you say it. I'm sure we spend much more than three pounds a week through not having a flat.
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