'Now, Uncle Ben, don't start again. Please. ' Ruth buttered her toast
firmly.
'So all I'm saying is that we need him here. Is that so bad?
'Saul is a lawyer.'
'Nu? Is that so bad. He's a lawyer, but we need a lawyer with us. The
fees I pay out to those other schmo ks ' 'He doesn't want to come into
the Company.'
'All right. We know he doesn't want charity. We know he doesn't want
your money working for him. We know all about his pride-but now he's
got responsibilities. Already he should be thinking about you-and the
baby-not so much about what he wants.
At the mention of the baby, Ruth frowned slightly. Benjamin noticed
it, there were few things he did not notice. Young people! If only
you could tell them. He sighed again.
'All right. We'll leave it until Saul comes back on leave, ' he agreed
heavily.
Ruth, who had never mentioned her uncle's offers of employment to Saul
had a momentary vision of living in Pietermaritzburg-close enough to be
drowned in the tidal waves of affection that emanated from her Uncle
Benjamin, caught like a tiny insect in the suffocating web of family
ties and duties. She flashed at him in horror.
'You even mention it to Saul and I'll never speak to you again.
Her cheeks flushed wondrously and fire burned in her eyes.
Even the heavy braid of dark hair seemed to come alive like the tail of
an angry lioness, clicking as she moved her head.
Oi Yoi Yoi! Benjamin hid his delight behind hooded lids. What a
temper! what a woman! She could keep a man young for ever.
Ruth jumped up from the table. For the first time he noticed that she
wore riding habit.
'Where are you going? Ruth, you're not riding again today.
'Yes I am
'The baby!
'Uncle Ben, why did you never learn to mind your own business?'
And she marched out of the room. Her waist was not yet thickened with
pregnancy and she moved with a grace that played a wild discord on the
old man's heart strings.
'You should not let her treat you that way, Benjamin. ' Mildly, the
way she did everything, his wife spoke from across the table.
'There's something troubling that girl.' Carefully Benjamin wiped egg
from his moustache, laid the napkin on the table, consulted the gold
fob watch he drew from his waistcoat, and stood up. 'Something big.
You mark my words.'
It was Friday, strange how Friday had become the pivot on which the
whole week turned. Ruth urged the chestnut stallion, and he lengthened
his stride under her, surging forward with such power that she had to
check him a little and bring him down into an easy canter.
She was early and waited ten impatient minutes in the Oaklined lane
behind Greys Hospital before, like a conspirator, the little nurse
slipped out through the hedge.
