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One

I

When at last I was taken out of the plaster, and the doctors had pulled me about to their hearts’ content, and nurses had wheedledbaby talk to o and live in the country

“Good air, quiet life, nothing to do—that’s the prescription for you That sister of yours will look after you Eat, sleep and idom as far as possible”

I didn’t ask hiain There are questions that you don’t ask because you’re afraid of the answers to the the last fiveto be condeht hypocritical reassurance from Sister “Coo talking in that way!”

So I hadn’t asked—and it had been all right I wasn’t to be a helpless cripple I could s, stand on them, finally walk a few steps—and if I did feel rather like an adventurous baby learning to toddle, obbly knees and cotton wool soles to my feet—well, that was only weakness and disuse and would pass

Marcus Kent, who is the right kind of doctor, answered what I hadn’t said

“You’re going to recover completely,” he said “We weren’t sure until last Tuesday when you had that final overhaul, but I can tell you so authoritatively now But—it’s going to be a long business A long and, if Inerves and muscles, the brain , will throw you back And whatever you do, don’t ‘will yourself to get well quickly’ Anything of that kind and you’ll find yourself back in a nursing hoot to take life slowly and easily, the teot to recover, but your nerves have been weakened by the necessity of keeping you under drugs for so long

“That’s why I say, go down to the country, take a house, get interested in local politics, in local scandal, in village gossip Take an inquisitive and violent interest in your neighbours If I o to a part of the world where you haven’t got any friends scattered about”

I nodded “I had already,” I said, “thought of that”

I could think of nothingin full of sympathy and their own affairs

“But Jerry, you’re looking , I must tell you—What do you think Buster has done now?”

No, none of that for s are wise They craay into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more

So it caents’ glowing eulogies of properties all over the British Isles, selected Little Furze, Lymstock, as one of the “possibles” to be viewed, mainly because we had never been to Lyhbourhood

And when Joanna saw Little Furze she decided at once that it was just the house anted

It lay about half aup to theVictorian veranda painted a faded green It had a pleasant view over a slope of heather-covered land with the church spire of Lymstock down below to the left

It had belonged to a family of maiden ladies, the Misses Barton, of whoest, Miss Emily

Miss E little old lady who etic voice she explained to Joanna that she had never let her house before, indeed would never have thought of doing so, “but you see, s are so different nowadays—taxation, of course, and then ined, and indeed the bank er hi nothing at all these days—foreign, of course! And really it makes it all so difficult One does not (I’m sure you will understand me, my dear, and not take offence, you look so kind) like the idea of letting one’s house to strangers—but so seen you, I shall be quite glad to think of you being here—it needs, you know, young life And IMen here!”

At this point, Joanna had to break the news of me Miss Emily rallied well

“Oh dear, I see How sad! A flying accident? So brave, these young men Still, your brother will be practically an invalid—”

The thought seeentle little lady Presurosser masculine activities which Emily Barton feared She inquired diffidently if I smoked

“Like a chimney,” said Joanna “But then,” she pointed out, “so do I”

“Of course, of course So stupid of me I’m afraid, you know, I haven’t moved with the times My sisters were all older than myself, and my dear mother lived to be ninety-seven—just fancy!—and wasis, there are no ashtrays in the house”

Joanna said that ould bring lots of ashtrays, and she added with a sarette ends on your nice furniture, that I do pro makes me so mad myself as to see people do that”

So it was settled and we took Little Furze for a period of six months, with an option of another three, and E to be very co into rooms kept by an old parlour with us for fifteen years Such a nice girl, and her husband is in the building trade They have a nice house in the High Street and two beautiful rooms on the top floor where I shall be most comfortable, and Florence so pleased to have me”

So everything seened and in due course Joanna and I arrived and settled in, and Miss E consented to reirl” who ca and who seemed to be half-witted but amiable

Partridge, a gaunt dour fe of late dinner (it having been Miss E) nevertheless accommodated herself to our ways and went so far as to ad up

When we had settled in and been at Little Furze a week Miss Emily Barton came soleton, the lawyer’s wife, Miss Griffith, the doctor’s sister, Mrs Dane Calthrop, the vicar’s wife, and Mr Pye of Prior’s End

Joanna was very much impressed

“I didn’t know,” she said in an awestruck voice, “that people really called—with cards”

“That is because, my child,”

I said, “you know nothing about the country”

“Nonsense I’ve stayed away for heaps of weekends with people”

“That is not at all the sa,” I said

I am five years older than Joanna I can re white shabby untidy house we had with the fields running down to the river I can re under the nets of raspberry canes unseen by the gardener, and the se cat crossing it, and the sound of horse hoofs kicking so in the stables

But when I was seven and Joanna tent to live in London with an aunt, and thereafter our Christmas and Easter holidays were spent there with pantoton Gardens with boats, and later to skating rinks In August ere taken to an hotel by the seaside somewhere

Reflecting on this, I said thoughtfully to Joanna, and with a feeling of compunction as I realized what a selfish, self-centred invalid I had become:

“This is going to be pretty frightful for you, I’ so”

For Joanna is very pretty and very gay, and she likes dancing and cocktails, and love affairs and rushing about in high-powered cars

Joanna laughed and said she didn’t mind at all

“As a et away from it all I really was fed up with the whole crowd, and although you won’t be sympathetic, I was really very cut up about Paul It will take et over it”

I was sceptical over this Joanna’s love affairs always run the same course She has aenius She listens to his endless conition Then, when he is ungrateful, she is deeply wounded and says her heart is broken—until the next gloo, which is usually about three weeks later!

So I did not take Joanna’s broken heart very seriously But I did see that living in the country was like a new game to my attractive sister

“At any rate,” she said, “I look all right, don’t I?”

I studied her critically and was not able to agree

Joanna was dressed (by Mirotin) for le Sport That is to say she earing a skirt of outrageous and preposterous checks It was skintight, and on her upper half she had a ridiculous little shortsleeved jersey with a Tyrolean effect She had sheer silk stockings and soues

“No,” I said, “you’re all wrong You ought to be wearing a very old tweed skirt, preferably of dirty green or faded brown You’d wear a nice cashan coat, and you’d have a felt hat and thick stockings and old shoes Then, and only then, you’d sink into the background of Lyh Street, and not stand out as you do at present” I added: “Your face is all wrong, too”

“What’s wrong with that? I’ve got on my Country Tan Makeup No 2”