holiday in a lousy hotel with it raining all the time and you can't speak the language and let's say you've lost your glasses and can't read.'
'Sounds a bit like the Army. I'm glad you're well now. And I'm very glad you got that job in the pub. If you hadn't, I might easily not have seen you again. You know, lots of times I wanted to go over to the hospital and try to find you.'
'How would you have set about it? You didn't know my name or anything.'
'That was what decided me against it. All I could have done was to walk round the place on the off- chance of seeing you.'
'Just as well you didn't. If you'd stuck at it at all our learned Dr. Best would have clapped you inside.'
'Oh yes, of course, you must have known Dr. Best.'
'Why, do you?'
'Not personally. I know a bit about him from the chap I was visiting when I saw you. Did you ever run into him there? Name of Hunter, Max Hunter. He wasn't mad, only drying out after too much whisky.'
'I may have done, I don't remember.'
'Of course, he was only in there a couple of weeks. Hey, I had him with me when I was in the pub earlier.'
'Which one was he?'
'Mustache. The one who wasn't with me the day I saw you.'
'I don't remember anybody being with you then,'
'That is flattering. I'm afraid I remember somebody being with you.'
'It's true, though.'
'I know. What did Dr. Best say was basically the matter with you?'
'He kept telling me I subconsciously wanted to sleep with other girls.'
Churchill burst out laughing.
'I don't, though.'
'Of course you don't. I'm sorry. I was laughing because he told Max Hunter the same thing, that he was a repressed homosexual. If you knew Max… But you will soon. When's your day off?'
'Monday.'
'That's too far ahead. I'm only going to be round here another five weeks or so.'
'That's not at all long, is it?'
'Then I'm being sent abroad, but only for a short time. I'll come and see you as soon as I get back.'
'You're not being sent to fight anybody, are you?'
'No. Not fight anybody. It isn't that sort of thing.'
'That's not too bad, then. But Monday's still a long way off. I'm free for bits of tomorrow, the first part of the morning and the afternoon.'
'I'm free in the afternoon. I'll come and fetch you and we'll drive somewhere. It's a pity you live so far away. Where is it exactly?'
She told him.
He drove on to a level piece of ground by the side of the road, stopped, and switched off the ignition. There was a faint sighing in the air which she thought at first was just the sound of silence, but then she felt a gentle breeze on her cheek. She started being afraid.
'What's the matter? Why have you stopped?'
'Cathy. So you're Lucy's friend.'
'Is that bad? Don't be angry with me.'
'I'm not angry with you. The other night one of the other chaps and I drove over to Lucy's place. He went up and went to bed with her and then I did the same.'
'I don't do that, though. I'm just her friend and I just live there. She's got them all organized so they don't even make passes at me. I just help her with the drinks when I'm there, that's all. I don't sleep with any of them. We're company for each other. I haven't got many friends in this country because I spent eight years in Australia when I was married to my first husband. When I left Casement she was the only person I could really go to. She doesn't try to make me go to bed with any of them. She helps me not to. I haven't been to bed with anybody since I went to live there. Honestly.'
'Don't you mind my having been to bed with her?'
'Are you in love with her and do you want to go to bed with her again?'
'No, neither of those.'
'Then I don't mind at all. Do you believe me?'
