Unknown by Unknown

a large invasion of guests hasn’t severely strained your resources?”
    Sarah glanced at him uncertainly and then she smiled. “Most of it comes out of the garden,” she admitted.
    “Ah yes,” he observed, “I’ve heard that you spend most of your time digging up the flowers and tending the weeds! If you care to come over to the Manor some time I’ll show you over our gardens and lend you a few books on the subject.”
    Sarah’s pleasure in the suggestion was so obvious that he chuckled.
    “The trouble is,” she confided, “that I don’t always recognise the flowers from their illustrations. I have a great deal to learn!”
    “All the more reason to come over and begin your education!” His grey eyes glinted at her, bringing an unexpected blush to her cheeks. “Have you done peering into those pots?”
    Sarah was glad of the hot steam from the boiling vegetables on her face.
    “Yes—yes, I think so.”
    “Then stop dithering and come into the sitting room, Samantha is waiting to meet you.”
    Samantha was everything that Sarah had been afraid she would be. She was tall and her hair was truly her crowning glory. Even more unfair, she had a pair of laughing green eyes and an air of enjoying everything that came her way. It was impossible to dislike her but, unfortunately, only too possible to envy everything about her.
    “Sarah Blaney?” she exclaimed. “But I’ve heard of you! I saw you in an Agatha Christie! I was staying with my aunt—” She broke off to put her arm through Robert’s to gain his full attention. “I wish I’d known it was you! It would have been fun to come round and dragoon you into having a drink with us, or something!”
    “Thank you,” Sarah said simply.
    Madge glanced across the room at Samantha. “Was she any good?” she asked prettily.
    Samantha’s smile was equally charming. “I’m not competent to say. She remembered all her lines—”
    “And tripped over the hero’s feet to boot!” Robert interrupted.
    “I did not!” Sarah protested.
    “You surprise me!”’
    Sarah gurgled with laughter, peeping up at him through her lashes. “The hero didn’t get in my way!”
    Samantha frowned. “Is this a private joke?”
    “Yes,” Madge added. “Tell us all about it. Though I can tell you how good my stepdaughter is as an actress. She was recently offered a part by Alec Farne in his new play. Of course, I won’t pretend that it was because she is the Actress of the Year, or anything like that! I think, though Sarah won’t admit it, that Alec found her equally taking off the stage!”
    “Oh, Madge!”
    “Well, he did take you out to dinner, dear!”
    “When I resigned the part,” Sarah said bitterly. “Largely to give himself the pleasure of telling me that I’d never get anywhere if I didn’t put the part of the moment before my family and everything else. He told me I hadn’t the temperament to be great.”
    “True,” Madge put in. “Clever Alec! He wouldn’t have given you the part, pet, if he hadn’t been a bit in love with you. I told you that!”
    There was a silence in the room. Sarah clenched her fists by her sides and faced her stepmother. “Why not?” she asked.
    Madge shrugged, laughing kindly at her. “Darling, you know why not! You may have been all right in a little repertory company, but surely you never thought you’d be a second Sarah Bernhardt?” She laughed again. “You need something extra for that ! It’s a pity you are your mother’s daughter and not mine, darling!” Sarah lifted her head proudly. “Not that it matters, but Alec Farne had never seen me before I auditioned for him. You should ask him if you don’t believe me.”
    “I will,” said Madge. “You must invite him down here some time and then we can all judge for ourselves!” She smiled. “Or do you think he wouldn’t think it worth his while with me here to chaperone you?”
    Sarah blenched. “I don’t know him well enough to say,” she