Free To Please the Doctor by Marjorie Moore

you’d be clever enough to combine marriage and a career. You’d just have to. I can’t believe that you’d ever entirely give up your work.”
    Richard Fahr ’ s arrival turned Jill ’ s thoughts from her speculations, and interrupted their discussion, and she was glad of the distraction. In spite of his unconcealed anxiety not to miss his train, Jill was again aware of his pleasing and cosy manner. His whole attitude was so utterly different from Duncan McRey ’ s, that again she found herself wishing that she was working for him. He on his side showed unmistakeable pleasure at being with Harriet and herself, and although he watched the time carefully he kept the conversational ball rolling smoothly, a n d somehow managed to infuse Jill with a newly-gained self-confidence.
    “ I must be moving—if I miss the nine-twenty-five I ’ ll have a two-hour wait. ” Richard Fahr rose to his feet. “ Settle the bill for me, Harriet, I ’ ll square with you in the morning. ” He turned to Jill. “ Sorry I have to rush off. Perhaps we can all dine together some other time. ”
    Harriet rose too. “ I ’ ll run you up the hill to the station. ” She turned apologetically to Jill. “ You don ’ t mind, do you? I shall only be about ten minutes. ”
    As Harriet and Richard Fahr crossed the dining-room their laughter drifted back to Jill. She withdrew her slender gold cigarette case from her bag, then hunted for her lighter. She must have left it on her dressing-table. A smoke was just what she needed to round off a pleasant meal, she mused, still searching vainly, in the pockets of her bag. “ Can I give you a light? ”
    Jill looked up startled to see Duncan McRey ’ s tall lean figure stooping above her, the cigarette lighter in his hand jerked into a flame. ‘ Thank you. ” She hoped that her expression did not reveal the amazement she felt at his unexpected appearance. She was even more surprised to see him settle down in the chair which Harriet had vacated.
    “ What s happened to Harriet and Fahr, they were dining with you, weren ’ t they? ”
    “ Harriet will be back soon. She is just taking Mr. Fahr to the station, he is catching the train for town. ”
    “ Oh, I see. ”
    “ Thanks for the light. ” Jill repeated in an attempt to make conversation. “ I put my cigarette case in my bag but must have forgotten my lighter. ”
    “ Is a bad memory one of your failings? ”
    The underlying meaning was all too clear, and Jill could have kicked herself for giving him such an opening. With an effort to cover her annoyance, she lifted her head to meet his steel-blue eyes unflinchingly. “ I may at times forget irrelevant details, but I have an excellent memory as far as my work is, concerned. ”
    “ I see. ” His expression was inscrutable, but Jill was sure a hint of amusement showed in the eyes which returned her gaze. Easing back in his chair he beckoned the hovering waiter. “ More coffee, please, and a liqueur brandy—two, ” he added as an afterthought, then, as the waiter turned away, Duncan McRey again addressed Jill. “ You ’ ll have a liqueur, won ’ t you? ”
    “ S i nce you have made up my mind for me, thank you, I will, ” Jill smiled faintly. She felt she ought to be grateful for that much consideration, but it was surely the most ungracious way in which she had ever been offered a drink! While they awaited the waiter ’ s return, the conversation was impersonal and desultory, but for some inexplicable reason Duncan McRey managed to make her feel uncomfortably self-conscious, a weakness from which she never normally suffered in masculine company. That he could be attractive she had realized at their very first meeting and, she had to concede, when he wasn ’ t being overbearing and critical, there was something compelling in his all-too-rare smile, while the soft burr in his voice was curiously pleasing. Without conscious volition she found herself wondering how he would act if