Free Love Is My Reason by Mary Burchell

of one of them, ” she added slowly.
    “ Which one? ” David tried hard to make that sound casual, but he was aware that his tone sharpened.
    Anya shook her head and her smile deepened.
    “ She wouldn ’ t tell me. When I asked her, she laughed and said it was better for me not to know—that one should never define one ’ s early loves too clearly. ”
    David bit his lip. But he had to try again.
    “ Did you ever meet either of them—when you were a child, for instance? ”
    “ Oh, no . ” She shook her head again. “ When I asked my mother to tell me more about the one she was fond of, she looked sad and said he had died many years ago. Before I was born. ”
    “ And yet she kept the photograph, when so much else had to be left behind. ”
    “ Perhaps— ” Anya smiled in that enigmatic way— “ it represented her youth and the days when she was happy. ”
    “ Did your father ever comment on it? ”
    “ I don ’ t think he ever saw it. But not long before my mother died, she gave it to me and told me to keep it always. ”
    “ Wasn ’ t that a—a rather odd request, considering that they were both strangers to you? ”
    “ I don ’ t know. ” She smiled again at David, gently, as though he were a child who needed to have a great deal explained to him. “ When one has very little, one cannot bear to destroy the few things one has loved. She knew I would keep it safe because she had treasured it. Why should she hurt herself by destroying it? ”
    And, turning back to the case, Anya put away the photograph among her other things.
    David rose slowly to his feet. The tremendous discovery loomed between them, dwarfing everything else, it seemed to him. And yet he could not, for the life of him, think of anything further to ask her.
    He murmured something about her joining his aunt when she was ready, and went out into the sitting-room again, closing the door of Anya ’ s room behind him .
    “ Aunt Mary — ”
    “ Why, David, what is it? ” Startled by his voice and manner, Lady Ranmere looked up.
    “ It ’ s the most incredible thing— ” he came across to her and dropped his voice, so that no possible echo of it could reach the girl in the other room— “ she ’ s got a photograph among her things in there. It ’ s of two young men, and one of them is Teresa Preston ’ s son. ”
    “ Teresa Preston ’ s—you mean Martin ? ” Lady Ranmere sat down on the sofa and stared at her nephew. “ It ’ s not possible! How can you be sure? ”
    “ I can ’ t be otherwise. Less than an hour ago I was looking with particular attention at that photograph Mrs. Preston wears. It could have been cut from another copy of the one Anya has in there. The face is identical. ”
    “ But did you ask the girl anything about it? ”
    “ Of course. I asked, as casually as I could, who the two men were. She said they were friends of her mother years ago, and that she had owned to being very fond of one of them. She wouldn ’ t say which one. ”
    “ Why not? ” Lady Ranmere looked exasperated.
    “ She put Anya off with some laughing generality about not owning to one ’ s early loves. But I suppose the truth was that she didn ’ t want to say too much. If one of them were Anya ’ s father — ”
    “ Is that what you really think? ”
    “ At least it is very probable, isn ’ t it? in view of what Ber tram told me. ”
    Lady Ranmere was silent for a moment. Then she said slowly, “ She might be no connection at all. On the other hand—she could be Teresa Preston ’ s grandchild. ”
    “ Exactly. The point is, what are we going to do about it? ”
    Again Lady Ranmere hesitated . Then she said, with some firmness, “ Nothing for the moment. ”
    “ Nothing? But you can ’ t just ignore a discovery of this sort! ”
    “ No. But you can postpone action until you find the right moment, ” retorted his aunt. “ Teresa is going to be fearfully emotional about this, you know. ”
    “ She will