away. Then he charged, his cap flew from his head and his dark hair,
despite the bonds of brilliantine, sprang up into curls as he ran. He
was squeaking incoherently as he reached the bed, clambered up on to
Sean's chest to lock both arms around his neck.
It was some time before Sean could prise him loose and look at him.
'Well, boy,' he said, and then again, 'well, my boy.' Unable to trust
himself not to lay Ins love for the child bare for all to see-there
were a hundred men watching and grinning, Sean sought diversion by
turning to Ada.
She waited quietly, as she had spent half her life waiting, but when he
looked at her the tenderness showed in her smile.
'Sean.' She stooped to kiss him. 'What hap penned to your beard?
You look so young.'
They stayed for an hour, most of which was taken up by a monologue from
Dirk. In the intervals while he regained his breath Ada and Sean were
able to exchange all their accumulated news. Finally, Ada stood up
from the chair beside Sean's bed' The train leaves in half an hour, and
Dirk has school tomorrow. We'll come up from Ladyburg each week-end
until you are ready to return home. ' Getting Dirk out of the hospital
was like evicting an unruly drunk from a bar. Alone Ada could not
manage it and she enlisted a male hospital orderly to the cause.
Kicking and struggling in tantrum, Dirk was carried down the veranda
with his screams ringing back to Sean long after he had disappeared
from view.
'I want my Dad. I want to stay with my Dad.
'Benjamin Goldberg was the executor of his brother's estate.
estate consisted of a forty-per-cent shareholding in Goldberg Bros.
Ltd.' a company which listed among its assets a brewery, four small
hotels and a very large one situated on the Marine Parade at Durban,
sixteen butcher shops, and a factory devoted to the manufacture of polo
ny pork sausages, bacon and smoked ham. The lag products caused
Benjamin some embarrassment, but their manufacture was too profitable
to be discontinued. Benjamin was also the Chairman of the Board of
Goldberg Bros.' and a sixty-per-cent shareholder. The presence of an
army of twenty-five thousand hungry and thirsty men in Natal had
increased the consumption of beer and bacon in a manner that caused
Benjamin further embarrassment, for he was a peaceable man. The huge
profits forced upon him by the hostilities both troubled and delighted
him.
These same two emotions were evoked by the presence in his household of
his niece. Benjamin had four sons and not a single daughter, his
brother Aaron had left one daughter for whom Benjamin would gladly have
traded all four of his own sons. Not that the boys weren't doing very
well, all of them settled into the business very nicely. One of them
running the Port Natal Hotel, the eldest managing the brewery and the
two others in the meat section. But-and here Benjamin sighed-but
Ruth!
There was a girl for a man's old age. He looked at her across the
polished stinkwood breakfast table with its encrustation of -H silver
and exquisite bone china, and he sighed again.
