Free There Will Come A Stranger by Dorothy Rivers

intended to be used in matters such as opening refractory beer bottles, for example, rather than against one ’ s fellow creatures. A fascinating theory. Would you object if I were to embody it in the paper I shall be reading on my return to England to the Society of Froth Blowers?”
    Gaily the meal began. Valerie, joining in the fun like any other happy girl of twenty-two, enjoyed herself the more light-heartedly because of her long years of seclusion, and found, relieved, that after all she was not being a wet-blanket as she had feared. Oh, lovely evening—lovely world! she thought, warmed by the feeling that the other three were liking her as much as she was liking them.
    While Rory carried on some absurd altercation with Susan, Valerie saw a couple threading their way towards them through the other tables: a girl in gleaming ivory satin, her cool dark elegance like a drawing in Vogue, and a man whose tall good looks and air of self-possessed assurance so resembled hers that evidently they were brother and sister. Lightly the girl laid crimsoned fingertips on Rory ’ s shoulder in a gesture that to Valerie seemed proprietorial. He swung around, then sprang up.
    “Hilary!—Gordon!—I say, this is splendid! I ’ ve been wondering whether you ’ d turn up this year!”
    The Prescotts evidently also knew the new arrivals, for they too joined in the chorus of greeting. They were alone, it seemed, having; arrived in Varlet-sur-Montagne only this afternoon.
    “We ’ ve only just begun,” said Rory. “You must join up with us. Yes, do! Waiter, lay two more places, will you?”
    Somehow two more places were squeezed on to the table meant for four, and two more chairs crowded among the others. When they had all settled down, Susan introduced Valerie and the newcomers, whose names were Hilary and Gordon Frayne. She gathered that the previous year they had stayed here at the same time as Rory and the Prescotts, and with other friends had formed a party to ski and dance and generally amuse themselves together.
    She listened while the others talked of people they had met here the year before.
    “Did you see that Judy Hambling and the fair man she was always going about with got engaged soon after they went home ? ”
    “Talking of engagements, did you ever hear what happened to Tony Lampson and that girl of his ? I wonder if they ever stopped their nattering for long enough to say ‘ I will ’ !”
    “I ran across the Drury girl in Harridge ’ s not long ago — ”
    “We heard from Peter Harrison at Christmas — he ’ s got himself a job in Buenos Aires, so he won ’ t be here this year — ”
    Presently Susan glanced at Valerie, who was listening to it all with a polite smile frozen to her face, trying to look as though she were enjoying herself, and realized how out of it she must be feeling. Susan wished the Fraynes hadn ’ t turned up again this year—it had been such fun, this evening, before they came upon the scene, but already Hilary had as usual made herself the centre of attention just as she had invariably done last year, thanks to her poise and beauty and the magnetism of her vitality. But it wasn ’ t good enough, Susan decided, to have her pushing Valerie, who was such a darling, out of the fun, simply because she wanted all the limelight for herself! Already Valerie ’ s gaiety and sparkle had been quenched and she was like a flower with petals closed against the dew. Susan tried to turn the talk on to a topic of more general interest.
    “That strike in France seems to be rather bad. I hope it won ’ t spread—Harry and I were thinking we might spend a night or two in Paris on the way back. ”
    Once again Hilary held the floor. She and Gordon had stayed in Paris with French friends on their way here, so she gave them all an animated and amusing exposition of affairs in France, and then went on to give them a great deal of very inside information regarding the internal situation in Italy,