An Unofficial rose

'Emma always showed shocking taste, Mildred murmured. 'Except perhaps once. Now if you'll excuse me I must go and find those two babes in the wood.

This speech, which left Hugh with intimations of more knowledge than he had credited her with, was the last which, on that occasion, she vouchsafed him tкte-а-tкte.

Chapter Five

'OF course most of these things are rather too young for you, said A

It was the following Saturday. Afer breakfast A

Pe

He looked round it now while A

It had a big window and a window-seat and the view of the beeches. Still, it wasn't worth a dash compared with his own tower room. His tower room was much smaller, only half the size of the lower tower rooms which A

'Well, it's a lot of junk really, said A

Pe

'Of course I don't mind' said A

Humphrey Finch, who had been 'very nice to him last Sunday, had said he'd be glad to have him to stay in London and show him round. Everyone had seemed rather dubious about this, which was odd, as they'd been saying for ages, though without doing anything about it, that it was a pity he wasn't seeing anything of London. Humphrey Finch was nice, but Pe

, Yes, I'd love to go, if that's all right.

'Well, yes, fine, said A

Pe

He decided to look at the books first. The results were disappointing. Besides Shakespeare and all that, there were a large number of books on birds, but nothing about aeroplanes or ships or motor-bikes. Well, there was one book about sailing ships. And there was a book on veteran cars which looked promising. He put that on one side. Books about climbing there were, only Pe

He turned his attention to the contents of the cupboard. Steve had evidently not shared Pe

Pe

Black Watch, Rifle Brigade, the Blues, the Royal Marines, Gurkhas, Sappers, Scots Greys. He began to set them out on the floor. Then he stopped. 'Child's stuff, A