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almost in spite of herself.
    ‘You’re pretty enough!’ Mrs. Wayne told her. ‘I like the way you do your hair too. Do you bleach it?’
    Sara shook her head.
    ‘I inherited it, I think,’ she said. She began to think that everyone in Tanzania was given to making these personal remarks.
    Mrs. Wayne looked a little like a satisfied cat. There was something rather feline about all her movements in spite of her plumpness.
    ‘That’s good. He doesn’t go for the synthetic at all, you know,’ she giggled childishly, ‘especially not synthetic ropes! But then that’s understandable, isn’t it?’
    Sara wondered whether she was referring to Matt.
    ‘I don’t suppose he’ll have time to notice me,’ she said, and hoped that the remark didn’t sound falsely modest.
    ‘Oh, he’ll notice you!’ Mrs. Wayne assured her. ‘As soon as I found that old photograph of you and saw how fair you were I thought of him!’
    Somehow Sara didn’t think her aunt was as naive as she sounded. She looked at her rather doubtfully.
    ‘I don’t quite know what you’re planning, Aunt Laura,’ she said, ‘but I’ve come out to work, not for any other reason.’
    ‘Of course not, dear! Nobody thought that you had! And please don’t call me aunt, it makes me feel so old. And I’m not your aunt really, I just happened to marry your uncle. C all me Laura. Everybody does!’
    That was another kittenish little untruth. Both Matt and his mother had referred to her strictly as Mrs. Wayne.
    ‘Pour Sara out a sherry, Felicity,’ Laura Wayne said suddenly.
    Felicity did so, her hands shaking slightly. She spilt it slightly as she carried it over to Sara and apologized.
    ‘I think I heard a car, Mother,’ she said.
    Mrs. Wayne sat up straight and peered out of the window. She too looked a little nervous.
    ‘It’s Matt, I think,’ she said.
    There was a silence as the car came up the long drive.
    ‘I — I think I’ll go and change,’ Felicity said hurriedly. She looked quickly round the room, half-smiled at Sara and vanished.
    ‘She’s always been terribly shy!’ Mrs . Wayne said automatically. Sara had the feeling that she had always said that about Felicity. But Felicity hadn’t seemed at all shy with her. Still, it could be different where Matt was concerned. Girls often behaved quite differently with the opposite sex.
    The car vanished round the side of the house and they could hear footsteps on the verandah.
    ‘Just called in to tell you I would be sleeping down here, Mrs. Wayne,’ a voice began in the doorway. It was Matt all right. He stood stock still in the doorway and stared at Sara.
    ‘Who are you?’ he asked.
    Sara found herself staring back. Surely, she thought, he must know who I am!
    ‘This is my niece, Sara,’ she heard Mrs. Wayne saying in the background.
    ‘How do you do?’ she said automatically.
    She watched him go slowly white with temper and in spite of herself began to feel afraid.
    ‘ Did you say your niece?’ he asked Mrs. Wayne.
    ‘Yes,’ Mrs. Wayne agreed, her eyes, always a little cold, looking a little dangerous as well. ‘She travelled up in the same train as you did.’
    ‘She did what?’ Matt asked quietly.
    Sara looked anxiously from one to the other of them.
    ‘I told your mother she was coming while you were away,’ Mrs. Wayne continued. ‘She’s going to act as the other nurse that you needed. Mrs. Halifax was kind enough to suggest it, and it does give us all a little more reason for staying on here in this house, doesn’t it?’
    Matt turned his back on her, quite deliberately. It was a snub that Mrs. Wayne wouldn’t forget in a hurry, Sara thought. She met Matt’s eyes as calmly as she could, and was astonished to see that they were as blue as her own in spite of his dark colouring.
    ‘It seems that you have been exceptionally badly treated, Miss Wayne,’ he said quietly. ‘Had I known that you were coming, I should have made arrangements for someone to meet you