She went downstairs for dinner at eight o'clock. The head waiter took her from the door of the magnificent dining room to a table in the corner near a window. She sat there and looked around ber In the course of her work and as a single woman, she had eaten in many hotels and restaurants on her own and she was very aware of whete waiters seated her. She hated having a table in the middle of a room when she had her back to half the room. And she also hated being hidden away somewhere in some dark corner as if there was embarrassment in being a lone diner But her table here was just right. This hotel knew its business. After a huge dinner, she felt in need of a walk. Also she wasn't ready to go to bed yet she wanted to explore Zermatt a little get a feel for the place. There were lots of people walking up and down the main street, mainly looking in the shop windows. She joined in the general movement. In one office window she saw detailed maps of the three main skiing areas which showed that some of the higher ski runs were still open, particularly the ones in the Matterhorn area. She also identified several places where she could hire skis. Good, everything was working out well. Having found the police station where shed have to tomorrow to start all the official business, she turned off the main street into the old part of the town. She remembered from her previous visit how interested shed been by the store houses down here. And there they were, still. Wonderful old wooden buildings standing on what looked like tall stone mushrooms. They were built like this to keep the rats out of the food, she'd been told She felt that this part of the town would have looked more or less the same in her grandfather's time he might even have stayed down here. She could be walking in his footsteps "What was he like?" she wondered, "Would I have enjoyed his company?" She certainly liked his choice of Zermatt. There was a small bar almost hidden behind an old wooden house. She pushed open the heavy door and was met by a wall of heat and loud voices, She sat at the bar and started reading something she'd picked up in the Tourist Office. But the voices disturbed her. Most of them were German-speaking but from one table in the corner, English came across loud and clear, "I wonder what condition he was in?' Frozen solid, I should think,
"Doubt it. It's been quite warm these last two weeks, I should think he'd begun to melt. oh, Harry, What a disgusting thought Apparently his family are going to take him back to England Clare realised with a shock that they were talking about her grandfather, Well, well so his reappearance seemed to be common knowledge,