lighter if one has two sinks side by side; and they should both be on a much higher level than most architects place them, to save backache from bending unnecessarily far over.'
`It is certainly a thought,' he admitted in a slightly chastened tone. `I suppose you got the idea from that domestic place you were at?'
`Yes: our kitchen expert had learned her stuff in America, where most wives have to do their own housework. It is scandalous how far behind we are in Britain; and in France things are even worse, in spite of the good cooking. For years past all housework has continued to be far more laborious than it need be. If I ever have a home of my own I shall install all the new labour saving devices. I'll have toe hollows instead of protruding bases along the floor level of the cupboards, so that the paint is not knocked off, compo rubber sinks and draining boards to save breakage, laundry chutes, a mix and whip, an electric dish washer, and one of those lovely things to throw the garbage into that chews up even bones.'
`And the Queen Anne teaspoons too, when some careless woman in fails to notice them among the debris,' John added with a smile, pleased at this opportunity to get in a return shot for hers about the sinks. All the same, he was impressed with her grasp of the subject, and went on jokingly, `We had better go into partnership. You could do all the expensive gadgets on the domestic side, while I crib ideas like the arrangement of those bookcases we saw at the de Grasses last night.'
Her expression immediately became serious, and she asked, `Do you think there is any risk that they might try to get hold of me by force?'
`I doubt it,' he replied with a confidence he was far from feeling. `In any case, you may be sure that we shall do our utmost to protect you. Still, it is a possibility that they might lure you away by some trick, and, as a matter of fact, while we were trudging up the hill, an hour back, I had an idea about that.'
`Did you? Tell me what it was.'
He hesitated a second. `Well, if by chance they did manage to entice you away, we shouldn't be on a very good wicket. I mean, if we had to go to the police and ask them to trace you, they would naturally want to know what authority we had for making such a request, particularly if things pointed to your having gone off of your own free will. They would get down to the job quickly enough if we were relatives of yours, but they might refuse to act at all if they took the view that, as we were only acquaintances, we had no right to stick our noses into your business.'
`I see what you mean; but I don't see how that can be got over.'
`It can be. I think the germ of the idea came into my mind when we were nattering about marriage. Mama and I could raise Cain, and get them running round in circles, if I could say that you were my fiancee.'
Christina's big brown eyes were round with astonishment as she turned them on him. `You . . you aren't making me a proposal of marriage, are you?'
He had been lying full length on the grass, but now he sat up and looked at her with a grin. `Sorry, but I'm afraid I'm not. Although I suppose it is presumptuous of me even to infer that I might have raised false hopes in your maidenly breast. I only had in mind that stupid old saying “marriages are made in heaven and engagements to be broken”. Ours, if you thought the idea worth pursuing, would be only for the “duration of the conflict”, and afterwards we should go our own separate ways, seeking more suitable partners to dig our hooks into in earnest. What do you say?'
`It is a bit shattering to have all one's girlish dreams about first proposals rendered farcical like this,' she said half seriously. `But I do see your point about an engagement giving you the right to get a hue and cry going, should I disappear. I'd feel bound to make it a condition, though, that we should tell your mother that there is nothing serious between us.'
`Of course. And Conky Bill, too. I wouldn't like either of them to think later that I had bilked you. But we ought to put up a bit of a show to establish our state of bliss in the minds of the retainers.'
She gave him a rather dubious look. `What exactly do you mean by that?'
`Why, the usual concrete evidence that you are about to be made into an honest woman.' As he spoke, he drew a gold signet ring from the little finger of his left hand and held it up. `Here ! Let me slip this on your engagement finger. It was my father's, and I regard it as one of my few treasures. So far God's sake don't lose it. You can flash it in front of that old Catalan woman of yours and Angele. Tell them that I mean to buy you something more spectacular when we get home, but that in the meantime it is the symbol of my undying love.'
`All right then,' she laughed, and held out her left hand. It was shapely, but large, and he had considerable difficulty in working the ring over her knuckle. At length he succeeded, and as it slipped down to the waist of the finger he muttered
`That's done it; but you have got big hands for a girl, haven't you?'
She flushed to the roots of her hair and retorted angrily, `Yes! And large feet, and a snub nose; so you're jolly lucky not to have got me for keeps.'
His eyes showed surprise and immediate contrition. `Damn it all, Christina!' he exclaimed. Then, putting out both hands, he took her by the shoulders and looked straight in her face. `I didn't mean to be rude. I swear I didn't! You've got the loveliest eyes I've ever seen, and if you only knew it, that funny nose of yours is one of your best features. It gives you an individuality that awfully few girls have got.'
`You don't mean that. You are just trying to be nice to me now, to make up for having been unintentionally nasty.'
`I do mean it. And your lips are as soft as any I have ever kissed.' He smiled suddenly. `You know, when one gets engaged to a girl it is usual to kiss her. That's always done, even in boy and girl affairs that are not intended to come to anything.' Next second, before she had a chance to resist, he slipped his arms round her, pulled her to him, and kissed her firmly on the mouth.
For a long moment she lay passive in his embrace, then he withdrew his lips, smiled down at her and said, `You are not doing your best, darling. That's not a patch on the kisses you gave me the other night.'
Instantly she pulled away from him. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she cried, `How horrid of you to remind me of that!'
`Why?' he asked, momentarily at a loss. `You are the same girl, and there is nothing to be ashamed of in what you did.'
`I was not myself then, and you know it.'
He gave a little shrug. `If you take my advice, then, should a chap ever make love to you seriously and you want him for a husband, you will let him kiss you only when you are, as you put it, not yourself.'
Christina's cheeks were scarlet as she murmured unhappily, `But it isn't normal. It's not decent. No girl could do that sort of thing and not be ashamed of it afterwards at least not until she was married.'
Smiling slightly, John shook his head. `My dear, I'm sure you really believe that, but you are talking the most utter rot. I give you my word of honour that grown up people who are going places together nearly always kiss that way even when they haven't the faintest intention of getting married. There is no harm in it, and it's part of the fun of life. You might just as well say that, because as children we have no urge to smoke or drink, it is wicked of us to take to it when we get older. Learning to kiss properly, and enjoying it, is just one of the normal processes of becoming a man or a woman. You did enjoy being kissed by me the other night, didn't you?'
`Yes,' Christina whispered. `I'... I ... of course I did.'
`Then stop being a baby, and let me kiss you again.' As he spoke, he drew her gently into his arms and this time kissed her parted lips.
From the distance came the faint clink of metal against small stones as a peasant hoed one of his terrace plots, and once a seagull circled overhead; but no one came to disturb them. John sat with his back against the bole of the tree, his right arm round Christina, and her head lay on his shoulder. Few, places could have been nearer the ideal for a first lesson in kissing, and once Christina let herself go she proved an apt pupil; but John was careful to keep matters on the level of a game not to be taken seriously. He had set out to take the girl's mind off the grim anxieties which he knew must lie at the back of it. That he had succeeded was clear, and he was thoroughly enjoying the process, but he said nothing which she could take as an indication that he was falling in love with her, as he feared that being so inexperienced she might think him in earnest and later, perhaps, suffer from disappointment.
As the sunny afternoon wore on they became drowsy and, still embraced, fell asleep. John was the first to wake and, glancing at his wrist watch, saw that it was after five o'clock. With a gentle kiss he aroused Christina, and said
