’You poor darling, she laughed.
She had deft hands and she soon made the room habitable. She arranged this and that and what she could not do with she turned out. Her wedding presents helped. Now the room was friendly and comfortable. In glass vases were lovely orchids and in great bowl huge masses of flowering shrubs. She felt an inordinate pride because it was her house (she had never in her life lived in anything but a poky flat) and she had made it charming for him.
’Are you pleased with me?’ she asked when she had finished. ’Quite,’ he smiled.
The deliberate understatement was much to her mind. How jolly it was that they should understand each other so well!
They were both of them shy of displaying emotion. It was only at rare moments that they used, with one another anything but ironic banter.
They finished luncheon and he threw -himself into a long chair to have a sleep. She went towards her room. She was a little surprised that he drew her to him as she passed and, making her bend down, kissed her lips. They -were not in the habit of exchanging embraces at odd hours of the day.
’A full tummy is making you sentimental, my poor lamb,’ she chaffed him.
’Get out and don’t let me see you again for at least two hours.,
’Don’t snore.’
She left him They had risen at dawn and in five minutes were fast asleep.
Doris was awakened by the sound of her husband splashing in the bath-house. The walls of the bungalow were like a sounding board and not a thing that one of them did escaped the other. She felt too lazy to move, but she heard the boy bring the tea things in, so she jumped up and ran down into her bath-house. The -water, not cold but cool, was deliciously refreshing. When she