Free I'll Never Marry! by Juliet Armstrong

sigh.
    “ Will she ever be able to forget? ” she said.
    Matron shook her head. “ Never! But if one day she finds herself able to think of it without bitterness and without horror—perhaps even with a sense of pity for a warped, unstable nature—we shall have done our job. ”
    Then, her face changing, she turned to the open door towards which half a dozen toddlers were making, shepherded by Ruth and Maureen.
    “ Who is going to be first into the bath? ” she cried, holding out her arms; and snatching up a couple of tiny boys, she bore them off, shouting with laughter, to the bathroom.
    Certainly there were few clouds on Maureen ’ s face during the next few days, and when Sunday came both she and Ruth were literally hopping with excitement.
    Their Sunday frocks, Ruth ’ s green, and Maureen ’ s pale blue, were as attractive as those of any children in the village, and Hilda, who had made them, could not repress a smile of satisfaction, as she watched the party set off, despite her disapproval of the whole business.
    Catherine, delighted with the well-groomed appearance of her charges, was conscious that she herself was looking her best. The tailored dress of checked mauve and white silk which she was wearing was an old favorite, in which she always felt at home, and her little hat of chipped straw, a recent acquisition, lent it a reasonably up-to-date air.
    She was, had the children known it, looking forward to the tea-party with as much zest as themselves. The thought of being in Andrew ’ s company held an undeniable thrill; but apart from that she felt sure it would be easy to get on well with Cecily. There had been something about the girl which she had liked from the beginning, and now she understood why there had been that chill in the atmosphere at the mention of Garsford House, she felt that there was no longer any reason why they should not be friends.
    “ I ’ m sure she will give the children and myself, too, a warm welcome, ” she reflected, as the three of them made their way up the rough drive which led to the Manor. But when they reached the big, oak - studded front door, standing invitingly open, she received a shock.
    Andrew came strolling out to greet them, a welcoming smile on his sun-tanned face, but behind him came not Cecily but Beryl Osworth, looking, moreover, extremely bored , and at Andrew ’ s first words, Catherine ’ s heart sank into her boots.
    “ Poor Cecily is flat out with a violent sick headache, ” he said. “ But by a piece of sheer luck Beryl Osworth, whom you have already, met, has turned up for the afternoon. So you won ’ t be left entirely to my tender mercies; you will have a hostess, after all. ”
     
     

 
    CHAPTER SIX
    Tea had b een set out on the terrace at the back of the house, and Catherine reflected once again that she had never seen a lovelier house and garden. There was nothing grand or formal about it, but the place had an air of having been lived in and loved and cherished for generation after generation.
    Flowers were everywhere. They grew in the chinks of the old stone walls, and among the paving stones—late wallflowers, yellow stone-crop, gay little dwarf gera n iums and campanulas, mauve and pink and blue. Jasmine, clematis and pale pink roses climbed round the mullioned windows, and below the terrace, sloping to the velvety lawn was a great bed of herbaceous plants—brilliant lupins of every shade, larkspurs and delphiniums, crimson geums, flaunting their loveliness in the afternoon sun.
    “ The rose garden is to the right there, under the arch, ” Andrew told her, evidently following her thoughts. “ We ’ ll make a grand tour after tea—though I expect it ’ s the farm buildings which will interest the children most, ” and he smiled across the table at the two little girls.
    They beamed at him, but said nothing, conscious of Beryl ’ s critical gaze, as they tried to spread their butter tidily on rather crumbly scones, and