aside any consideration for your parents, is that you have to choose between a solid career for which you’re , already fitted, and a fickle one . You have a post awaiting you in Durban which you’ve admitted is far better than you’d hoped for, and you’ve the guarantee of six month work with Astra. It’s clear-cut, Jeremy.”
He could not let it rest there, of course. Astra had handled him with all her considerable cleverness; persuaded him, no doubt, that a man with his features was meant to use them. One couldn’t really blame Jeremy if he found himself yearning to try his luck behind the footlights. T hey parted soon after that, Jeremy to take a sea water bath and relax in his cabin and Lisa, to collect Nancy and watch the first brave swimmers in the pool.
Jeremy came to dinner looking pale and interesting. Like many other men he had donned a white evening jacket as a concession to t he warmer atmosphere, and the sleekness of his hair allied with the sombre shadow in his eyes made him appear older and more responsible. His compliment for Lisa’s white frock was sincere but restrained. He was acting already, she thought, and doing it rather well. His first lesson with Astra had been completely successful .
They strolled on deck, found chairs in the wind-screened deck lounge and drank coffee and liqueurs . Tonight the stars were bright, and a moon, invisible from where they sat, cast back shadows in angular patterns over the afterpart of the ship.
Jeremy said , “ I’m going to sleep on it and not make any decision till it’s unavoidable.”
“Very wise,” she answered. “And while you’re thinking , it over, don’t forget that one of these days you may want to take a wife.”
“I’ve always told myself I wouldn’t marry before I’m thirty. It used to be my ambition to marry where money is.”
“Wise again, perhaps,” she said, smiling .
Lisa was watching a couple who had appeared from the lounge and halted in an angle of the rail. No mistaking the fact that Mark was doing most of the talking, but Astra gave the impression of being a willing listener. She gave a low laugh and shook his arm as she made some response. Lisa imagined the faint, autocratic grin which he was doubtless bending upon his companion, and her heart contracted, though it shouldn’t have done, so. She had no proprietary rights in that grin. But she did wish it wasn’t the custom for the Captain to be sociable with his passengers; only then she herself would never encounter him.
Jeremy turned his head and saw them. “Oh, oh,” he murmured. “Astra’s amazing, isn’t she? I expect the big sea-dog will hitch up with someone like her. They’re different from us, Lee, both of them. In their set one doesn’t need the thing called love. One changes one sophisticated relationship for another, that’s all. Then they get married and share a flat on the few occasions when they happen to be in the same place together. I don’t suppose they ever get really intimate ... only physically.”
“They’ve known each other for years,” she threw at him quickly. “If they were attracted they’d have married before.”
“Don’t you believe it, my pet. Both were probably ambitious, and now each of them has reached the top. They’ve nothing left to conquer but marriage.”
Jeremy’s diagnosis was too close to Mark’s expressed sentiments. Lisa had the conviction that the young man was learning more than the art of speaking and posturing from Astra Carmichael. Or perhaps he had picked up a good deal while kicking around London without an anchor.
The couple by the rail had begun to walk back again.
Trust Mark to stay well on the right side of convention. He must have cast a glance into the open end of the deck lounge and seen the two who had it to themselves, for he spoke to Astra, and their steps veered. With Astra preceding him, he came to their corner and g ave a slight, ironical bow.
“Good evening. I’ve just been
He could not let it rest there, of course. Astra had handled him with all her considerable cleverness; persuaded him, no doubt, that a man with his features was meant to use them. One couldn’t really blame Jeremy if he found himself yearning to try his luck behind the footlights. T hey parted soon after that, Jeremy to take a sea water bath and relax in his cabin and Lisa, to collect Nancy and watch the first brave swimmers in the pool.
Jeremy came to dinner looking pale and interesting. Like many other men he had donned a white evening jacket as a concession to t he warmer atmosphere, and the sleekness of his hair allied with the sombre shadow in his eyes made him appear older and more responsible. His compliment for Lisa’s white frock was sincere but restrained. He was acting already, she thought, and doing it rather well. His first lesson with Astra had been completely successful .
They strolled on deck, found chairs in the wind-screened deck lounge and drank coffee and liqueurs . Tonight the stars were bright, and a moon, invisible from where they sat, cast back shadows in angular patterns over the afterpart of the ship.
Jeremy said , “ I’m going to sleep on it and not make any decision till it’s unavoidable.”
“Very wise,” she answered. “And while you’re thinking , it over, don’t forget that one of these days you may want to take a wife.”
“I’ve always told myself I wouldn’t marry before I’m thirty. It used to be my ambition to marry where money is.”
“Wise again, perhaps,” she said, smiling .
Lisa was watching a couple who had appeared from the lounge and halted in an angle of the rail. No mistaking the fact that Mark was doing most of the talking, but Astra gave the impression of being a willing listener. She gave a low laugh and shook his arm as she made some response. Lisa imagined the faint, autocratic grin which he was doubtless bending upon his companion, and her heart contracted, though it shouldn’t have done, so. She had no proprietary rights in that grin. But she did wish it wasn’t the custom for the Captain to be sociable with his passengers; only then she herself would never encounter him.
Jeremy turned his head and saw them. “Oh, oh,” he murmured. “Astra’s amazing, isn’t she? I expect the big sea-dog will hitch up with someone like her. They’re different from us, Lee, both of them. In their set one doesn’t need the thing called love. One changes one sophisticated relationship for another, that’s all. Then they get married and share a flat on the few occasions when they happen to be in the same place together. I don’t suppose they ever get really intimate ... only physically.”
“They’ve known each other for years,” she threw at him quickly. “If they were attracted they’d have married before.”
“Don’t you believe it, my pet. Both were probably ambitious, and now each of them has reached the top. They’ve nothing left to conquer but marriage.”
Jeremy’s diagnosis was too close to Mark’s expressed sentiments. Lisa had the conviction that the young man was learning more than the art of speaking and posturing from Astra Carmichael. Or perhaps he had picked up a good deal while kicking around London without an anchor.
The couple by the rail had begun to walk back again.
Trust Mark to stay well on the right side of convention. He must have cast a glance into the open end of the deck lounge and seen the two who had it to themselves, for he spoke to Astra, and their steps veered. With Astra preceding him, he came to their corner and g ave a slight, ironical bow.
“Good evening. I’ve just been
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