She and the boy walked towards a car, and I recognised it as the little grey Morris from the Pendorric garages.

She got into it, and the boy stood waving while she drove away. In a moment of panic it occurred to me that she might pass my car and recognise it. I ran down the cart track, and as I came to the main road I was relieved because she had gone in a direction away from where my car was parked.

I walked slowly back and drove thoughtfully home. Why, I asked myself, was Rachel Bective visiting the boy who was so obviously a Deborah and Hyson and Carrie returned to Pendorric after a few days. I thought the child looked pale and that the holiday had not done her much good.

” She misses Lowella,” Morwenna told me. ” They’re never completely happy apart although they quarrel almost all the time when they’re together.”

Deborah smiled sadly. ” When you’re a twin you understand these things,” she said. ” We do, don’t we, Morwenna?”

” Yes, I suppose so,” replied Morwenna. ” Roc and I were very close always, though we rarely quarrelled.”

” Roc would never take the trouble to quarrel with anyone,” murmured Deborah. She turned to me: “My dear, you’re not looking as well as I should like to see you. You should have come with us. My moorland air would have done you the world of good.”

” Oh come, it’s not as good as our sea ah-surely,” laughed Morwenna.

” It’s change that’s good for everyone.”

” I’m so glad you’ve come back,” I told Deborah. ” I’ve missed you.”

She was very pleased.

“Come up with me. I’ve brought you a little present from home.”

” For me I How charming of you !” “It’s something I treasure.”

“Then I shouldn’t take it.”

” You must, my dear. What point would there be in giving you something I want to get rid of?”

She slipped her arm through mine and I thought: Perhaps I can ask Deborah. Not outright, of course, but perhaps indirectly. After all, she would know what was happening better than most people.

We went up to her bedroom, where Carrie was unpacking. ” Carrie,” cried Deborah, ” where’s the little gift I brought for Mrs.

” Here,” said Carrie without looking at me.

” Carrie hates leaving her beloved moor,” Deborah whispered to me.

She was holding out a small object wrapped in tissue paper. I opened it, and although it was one of the most exquisite things I had ever seen, I was dismayed. For in a frame set with jade and topaz was a delicate miniature of a young girl, her hair falling about her shoulders, her eyes serene.

” Barbarina,” I whispered.

Deborah was smiling down at the lovely face.

“I know how interested you have always been in her and I thought you’d like to have it.”

” It’s a beautiful thing. It must be very valuable.”

“I’m so glad you like it.”

” Is there one of you? I would rather have that.”

My words evidently pleased her, for she looked very beautiful suddenly. “People always wanted to paint Barbarina,” she said. ” Father invited lots of artists to the house—he was interested in the arts—and they used to say: We must paint the twins, and we’ll begin with Barbarina.” They sometimes did; and when it was my turn, they forgot. I told you, didn’t I, that she had something that I lacked. It drew everyone to her—and because I was so like her, I seemed like a pale shadow . a carbon copy, you might say, a little blurred, much less attractive.”

” Do you know, Deborah,” I said, ” you underrate yourself. I’m sure you were every bit as attractive.”

” Oh Favel, what a dear child you are! I feel so grateful to Roc for finding you and bringing you to us.”

” It’s I who should be grateful. Everyone’s been so kind to me … particularly you.”

“I? Boring you with my old photographs and chatter about the past!”

“I’ve found it immensely interesting. I want to ask you lots of things.”

” What’s stopping you? Come and sit in the window. Oh, it is good to be back. I love the moor, but the sea is more exciting, perhaps. It’s so unpredictable.”

“You must have missed the moor when Roc and Morwenna were young and you were looking after them.”

” Sometimes, but when they went away to school I’d go to Devonshire.”

“Did they go to Devon for school holidays?”

” Almost always they were at Pendorric. Then of course Morwenna started bringing Rachel for holidays, and it seemed to be a natural thing that she should come to us every time. Morwenna was extraordinarily fond of her for some reason. And she wasn’t really a pleasant child. She locked Morwenna in the vault, once. Just for fun!

You can understand how terrified poor Morwenna was. She had a nightmare soon after it happened and told me about it when I went in to comfort her. But it didn’t make any difference to the friendship, and when Roc and Morwenna went to France, Rachel went with them. “

“When was that?”

“It was when they were older. They would have been about eighteen then. I always hoped that Morwenna would drop her, but she never did.

And at that time the three of them became very friendly. “

” When they were about eighteen …”

” Yes. Morwenna was anxious to go to France. She wanted to improve her accent; and she said she’d like to go for two months. She had finished at her English boarding school and I was thinking that she might go abroad to school; but she said it would be much better for her to stay in some pension where she would learn the language, by mixing with people, more easily than she ever would at school.”

” And Morwenna went to France for two months.”

” Rachel went with her. So did Roc for a while. I was a bit alarmed at that time. Roc was with them so much and I was beginning to be afraid that he and Rachel …”

” You wouldn’t have welcomed … that?”

” My dear, I expect I’m being rather mean, but somehow I should not have liked to see Rachel mistress of Pendorric. She hasn’t the … charm. Oh, she’s an educated girl, but there’s something I don’t like about her … something I don’t altogether trust. This is strictly between ourselves, of course! I wouldn’t say it to anyone else.”

” I think I know what you mean. “

” She’s too sharp. One gets the idea that she’s watching for the main chance all the time. I expect it’s my stupid imagination, but I can tell you I had some very deep qualms at that time, because Roc was so anxious to see the girls settled in their pension comfortably. And he actually stayed there for a while and went back and forth while they were there. Every time he returned I was terrified that he would announce his intentions. Fortunately it all fell through.”

” It was a long time ago,” I said.

Deborah nodded.

I was thinking. They were eighteen, and the boy could be about fourteen now. Roc is thirty-two.

I had often felt that Rachel had some hold on the Pendorrics. She gave that impression. She was like a person with a chip on her shoulder and yet at the same time there was a certain truculence about her. It was as though she was continually implying: Treat me as a member of the family or else . And she visited the boy who was living with Louisa Sellick! I said:

“I suppose at that time their father was dead … I mean Roc’s and Morwenna’s.”

” They were about eleven when he died. It was six years after Barbarina …”

So the boy was not his, I thought. Oh Roc, why do you keep these secrets from me? There’s no need.

My impulse was to talk to Roc at the earliest opportunity, to tell him what I had conjectured.

When I went to my room I put the miniature on the mantel shelf and stood for some minutes looking into the serene eyes depicted there.

Then I decided to wait a while, to try to find out more about the nature of this web in which I was becoming entangled.

In the midst of this uncertainty Mabell Clement gave a party. When Roc and I drove over, we were both a little subdued; I felt weighed down with thoughts of the boy who lived on the moors, and conjectures as to what part Roc had played in bringing him into the world. I longed to talk to Roc and yet I was afraid to do so.

Actually I was afraid to face up to the fact that Roc might not tell me the truth. I was pathetically eager that he should not lie to me, and at the same time I was desperately trying to keep intact that wonderful happiness which I had known.

As for Roc, he was telling himself that my adventure in the vault had naturally upset me a good deal and that I should need time to recover.

He treated me gently, and reminded me of those days immediately following my father’s death.

Mabell, ear-rings swinging, was a wonderful hostess and there was an informal atmosphere about the party. Several of the local artists were present, for our scenery had made the district an artists’ colony; and I was gratified when one of them mentioned my father and spoke with reverence of his work.

From the other side of the room I heard Roc’s laughter and saw that he was the centre of a group, mainly women. He seemed to be amusing them, and I wished that I was with them. And how I wished that there were no more doubts and that I could escape from my misgivings into that complete and unadulterated happiness which no one on earth but Roc could give to me.

” Here’s someone who wants to meet you.” Mabell was at my elbow and with her was a young man. I looked at him for some seconds before I recognised him.

” John Poldree, you remember?” be said.

“Why yes. The ball …”

Mabell gave him a little push towards me and then was gone. ” It was a wonderful ball,” he went on.