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it's his age with him--but Graham Hall is also giving up. Poor chap, he's in a bad way. So I thought of my son-in-law. " Slowly he lifted his head and looked at Harry. His blue eyes looked cold, almost opaque, and he said directly to him now, " Of course it all depends whether your husband will take one of the vacant chairs on the first floor. "

"Don't be silly. Don't be silly." Esther was laughing, her voice high, her attitude almost girlish.

"Well, it's up to him." Dave Rippon's glance was boring into Harry, and as Harry looked back at his father-in-law the expression on his face brought a sudden quietness to the table. They were all staring at him now. What he might have said if Gail hadn't at that moment got up and, coming to his side, exclaimed excitedly, "Haven't you anything to say, Mr. Director?"

He turned and looked at her for a matter of seconds, then muttered thickly, "It's come as a sort of surprise, I wasn't expecting it."

"He who expecteth nothing." Terry's voice was mimicking their minister. Then speaking as his perky self once again, he added, "But I'll tell you what I expect. Pop. I expect a car the minute I'm seventeen, but I'll settle for a scooter to be going on with."

Amid laughter, in which she joined, Esther said, "You'll have nothing of the sort to be going on with! And don't call your father Pop. I've told you about that before."

"All right, Ma."

Whether Terry realised it or not he was creating a diversion for which Harry was grateful; but shortly there came a lull in their laughter and chatter and they were all looking at him again, all, that is, except Dave Rippon. He was eating his meal with apparent enjoyment, and into the waiting silence he said, "This is an excellent casserole; I can never get Mrs. Hunter to do steak like this. "

"Excuse me." His voice mumbling, Harry got to his feet.

"What's the matter?" Esther looked concerned for a moment, and he patted his stomach and said, "Over-eating I suppose, but carry on."

"5

So this was how it was going to be; promotion, as a gob Stopper.

Working on the same floor and hating each other's guts. Miss Bateman had said that his father-in-law disliked him. Now that feeling had turned to black hate; it had poured out of his eyes as he had stared at him back there at the table. And on his part, the feeling was returned in full. And so how could they work together? He couldn't do it. He just couldn't do it . But the alternative was to bring everything into the open . It must have been twenty minutes later when Esther came into the room.

She stood looking at him for a full minute before she said, "What's the matter with you. Harry?"

The? Nothing, just tummy. " He punched his middle.

"Aren't you coming down?"

"No; if you don't mind I'll turn in."

"You're going to BED 1' Her voice was high in disbelief.

"And after Father bringing you this news."

He could only stare at her until she said, "Talk about gratitude; you didn't even say thank you. What's come over you lately?"

He got to his feet and went to the dressing table and took off his collar and tie, and he said to her through the mirror, "What have I got to thank him for? If he hadn't done it off his own bat, you would have seen he did it off yours; so it was cut and dried anyway, wasn't it?"

"Aha!" She moved her head from one side to the other^ on the exclamation.

"Now I have it. Well, let me tell you, Harry, you should be thankful and glad that there are people who have your welfare at heart, because, left to yourself..."

He swung round, saying sharply, "Don't say it, Esther, don't say it.

I've heard it for years and once mort would be just too much. " He watched the colour flush her pale face. Then she -swung round and went out. But she didn't bang the door behind her; that wasn't Esther's way.

He returned to the mirror and looked at his reflection. She had explained his reactions to her own satisfaction; he would leave it like that and let things ride. For how long? He didn't know.

leaving. Why, nobody seemed to know; there were various rumours. She was going to be married to a man abroad with whom she had been corresponding for years; and this could have been so because nobody knew Miss Bateman's business. She'd had money left her; perhaps she'd won the pools, with an X for secrecy, who was to know? Some more astute guessers said, perhaps she'd had a row with old man Rippon for he had been acting like a white-skinned devil during the last few days.

But Ada Cole thought that she was the sole reason for Miss Bateman leaving and she said so to Harry.

"It all stems from Friday, Mr. Blenheim, and what I told her. And then you going up there."

He assured her again and again that his own affair had nothing whatever to do with Miss Bateman leaving, until he finally' convinced her, and then she said, "What will they do without her?"

"Everybody can be done without, Ada."

"But she's got everything at her fingertips, she's a wonderful organiser, you know she is, Mr. Blenheim."

"Yes, I know Ada. But someone else will take her place and will soon get into the way."

"They'll never suit Mr. Rippon, he's very particular."

"Yes." He endorsed her statement.

"He's very particular."

"They have had nine replies to the advertisement in the evening paper,"

she said.

"Well, that's hopeful." He nodded at her.

"Now let's forget about the business of the upper floor and get on with this one."

Ada Cole looked slightly hurt. Never before had Mr. Blenheim told her in so many words to get on with her work . By Thursday it was all over the office that Mr. Rippon had picked his new secretary. She was a woman in her forties with good references and she was to start on Monday.

Miss Bateman left on the Friday evening without any fuss, not going round, as some of the other staff would have done, to say good-bye to her colleagues. And there was no presentation made to her. She had asked Ada Cole to see definitely that there was no collection taken on her behalf.

On the Monday morning Olive Standford told the other girls on the Friday night and she was sure she was crying, and on this she was howled down. Mary Cheeseman said, "That would have been quite impossible, as the paragon hadn't any tear ducts."

On the Monday afternoon when Harry came back from lunch, Ada informed him that Mr. Rippon said she had to take over the management of the pool until the new secretary got into her stride.

The new secretary gave her notice in at the end of the week; but this was no nine days wonder, everybody expected it.

The next secretary stayed a month. It was when the news went round the office that she had given her notice in, too, that Betty Ray spoke to Ada Cole. She waylaid her in the main hall.

"Miss Cole, can I have a word with you?" Her tone was deferential, but the look Ada bestowed on her was cold and her tone prim, as she said,

"Yes, Miss Ray. What is it?"

"Well, I'll come to the point. It's no use beating about the bush.

Mr.

Rippon . above'--she jerked her head--'nobody's staying with him; I want the chance to try. "

Youl' "Yes, me. Why not?" The deference had gone out of the tone.

"I've been here nearly six months; I've got the hang of the work. Me shorthand's better than anybody else's. It's a hundred and twenty a minute and me typing's sixty. And what's more I can pick things up quick. I want a chance to try."

"Well, you're not getting it. Miss Ray. And take that as final."

Ada was utterly indignant. That girl daring to ask to be sent upstairs. She felt like telling her all she knew about her. If she had her way she'd dismiss her on the spot; cheap little blackmailing guttersnipe 1 There was only one answer to a further advertisement for a secretary in the evening paper, and this applicant's inexperience disqualified her immediately. There was nothing for it but Ada should send someone up from the pool. But it certainly wouldn't be that Ray piece; on that she would remain firm if Mr. Rippon never got a secretary. So she sent up Rose Wey- bridge; and on the second day Rose came downstairs crying, and stuttered, "He told me to ge-t out."

newest recruit upstairs, she found the typewriters quiet and the girls waiting for her. They all wanted to be the first to tell her that Betty Ray had taken her pad and things and gone upstairs to Mr.

Rippon's office. They thought that Miss Cole was about to choke and they waited for her to grab the phone. Instead, they watched her march out and across the hall to the lift.

Ada Cole was incensed. That's how she would have termed her feelings;

but flaming mad would have been a more accurate description. When she reached Dave Rippon's office the outer room was empty. Knocking on the private door and being told to enter, she saw Betty Ray seated at one side of the desk and looking as if she had been there for ever. For a moment she was unable to speak; then almost spluttering she said, "Mr.

Rippon ... Mr. Rippon, I didn't send this girl up here. She came on her own accord. She's ..."

"Yes, she's just told me. Well, she can't be any worse than I've had lately. If she is she'll go. In the meantime, you can leave things as they are, Miss Cole."

She stared at Mr. Rippon; then she looked down on the girl, and she had the most disturbing desire. She wanted to slap her face, not just once, but twice, three times, go on slapping it. She hurried from the room, and in the lift she said to herself, "And he knows about her and Mr. Blenheim. There's going to be trouble. Oh dear, there's going to be trouble. And what will poor Mr. Blenheim say?"

SEVEN

"Do you like it?"

"I think it's smashing."

Truly? "

He looked at her proudly. In the last three months she had put on inches; her puppy fat had almost disappeared, her legs were long and beautiful, she carried herself well, holding her head up as if, like the song, she was attempting to walk tall. Yet she had no need to try;

two months past her sixteenth birthday she was already five foot five.

Her face looked warm and kind and beautiful and so, so young.

She said, "It isn't mini-mini, it's only three inches above."

He smiled as he looked at the cream wool lacy thing she was wearing.

Not mini-mini, as she said, but showing a surprising length of leg. He dropped his chin down and pushed his eyebrows up as he asked, "Has your mother seen it?"

"Yes." She pulled a long face.

"She said definitely no, until she saw Anna's. Coo I Hers is mini-mini-minus. But she said it was as well she wasn't with me when I went to buy it." She hunched her shoulders.

"It was lucky I hung on to my birthday money, wasn't it?"

"I'll say it was."

She came slowly across the room and sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him as he stooped to tie his shoe laces. Then, her head on one side, she asked, "Could I have come with you to the dance if I hadn't been going to Paul's party ?"

Yes. Why not? "

"You would have taken me ?"

"Of course ... Why do you ask?"

"Well, Mother says I couldn't have gone in any case, it being a staff do; but you're taking John, so I said I didn't see why I she got ratty with me."

"But you are going to Paul's, so why bother arguing?"

"Ohi' She wagged her head.

"It's just a matter of getting things straight ... Sort of standing up for me rights, as Elsie says."

As he got into his dinner jacket be said, "But you'd rather go to Paul's party wouldn't you?"

"Huh! Yes, I think so... Dad I'

Yes? "

"Do you really think I'm pretty?"

He came slowly to the side of the bed and put his finger under her chin and looked down at her.

"No, I don't think you're pretty." He moved his head from side to side.

"Pretty is such a weak word. I think you're beautiful."

"Oh Dad 1' Impulsively she leant her head against his waist and put her arms around his hips.

"Do you know, you're the only one who's ever said I'm beautiful; Paul says I'm not."

"Whati' He jerked her head up.

"You mean to say he's told you you're not...?" * "Yes. We were talking one night and he said I wasn't beautiful I wasn't even pretty, I had the wrong features. But he said I had something. And when I asked him what it was he couldn't tell me, he just said I had something that ..." She stopped and chuckled, and he prompted, "That what?" and she blinked her eyes and bit on her lip before she ended, "That got him."

He laughed deep in his throat and walked to the wardrobe, saying,

"Well, I'm glad you've got that something an' all, but he's wrong."

"I don't think so. Dad." It was her quiet tone that made him look over his shoulder at her. Her face was straight, almost solemn as she said, "You're the only one who sees me as beautiful. There's not another soul in the world thinks I'm even pretty ... If Paul doesn't...

well

I'

He turned his head away, opened the wardrobe door and took out his overcoat, and he didn't speak until he was ready to leave the room.

Then, standing in front of her, he said, "People will come to my way of thinking before long, you'll see."

She stood up and put her hands on the lapels of his coat and Grew mcni lugciiici anu uni-iuiiing i. it. wy vA. --^^, -"^.." ^. ^ it as she said, "I'm worried. Dad."

"What about?"

"You. You haven't been well for weeks."

"Nonsense. It's just the pressure of work. Fitting into a new job.

Responsibilities and all that. But I'm all right. "

She still played with the button as she said, "Mother's worried about you; we all are."

When he didn't answer she raised her head and looked at him, and then he said softly, "Well, you can stop worrying for there's nothing to worry about. Now you go out and enjoy your self."

She smiled at him, then said, "It won't be much fun for you without Mother. Of all the luck, to go and sprain her ankle the day before the one night in the year she looks forward to."