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lit up as she arrived with a breathless, 'Gosh, I thought you were never coming! Everyone else has gone.'
    Gray Barrett's reply was a little clipped as he told her with a shrug of his shoulders, 'I'm a busy man, Stephanie. I've had things to do.' As they stood he turned to where Carol was coming up behind and bridging the silence he went on, 'This is Miss Lindley. She will be your companion during your stay in Italy.'
    The light went out of the small face. Carol found herself being raked coldly by a pair of brown eyes which reminded her of her employer's. In turn she saw a slender girl with an almost fully developed figure beneath the school uniform. Her slightly waving hair, which she wore drawn back from her face by a broad headband, had a lustrous sheen about it. Her smooth complexion was inclining towards an olive glow. With that wide smile, glimpsed briefly a few seconds ago, showing perfect white teeth, there was no doubt that in a few years'
    time Stephanie would be a beauty.
    Carol felt colourless and wraith-like beside her. Awkwardly she searched for a smile and forced out a* friendly, 'Hello.'
    'Hello.' The reply was polite but nothing more. Drowning in shyness, Carol was saved from the strain of the moment by the appearance of another figure coming across the space. A smart woman with a beautiful hair-do and a tailored dress, she could only have been the headmistress.
    'Mr Barrett! How good to see you.' She came smilingly forward.
    Gray Barrett acknowledged her with a nod and went to shake her outstretched hand. They stood and talked for a while, then turned and walked back across the quadrangle.
    Carol hung about feeling intensely awkward again. Though she was Stephanie's senior by four years, she felt infinitely more gauche. Telling herself that this wouldn't do at all, she made an attempt to appear in control of the situation by suggesting with a practical smile, 'I suppose we ought to wait by the car.'
    'I expect so,' Stephanie said docilely enough. They strolled as far as the steps where the younger girl stopped to run a finger with studied casualness around one of the old stone urns. The childish gesture made Carol feel a little more sure of herself. Realising that it was up to her to try and break the ice between them, she paused beside the other stone urn and queried pleasantly, 'Are you looking forward to spending the summer in Italy?'
    Stephanie shrugged. 'Make a change from this old dump,' she replied offhandedly.
    The indelicacy of the remark put Carol off her stroke a little. But it wasn't entirely unexpected. She could still remember her own schooldays. Pushing on, she commented chattily, 'I expect you'll be seeing your parents when you come back?'
    Stephanie turned and said, giving her a straight look, 'They haven't been to England for five years.'
    Aware that she had hit rocky ground again, Carol kept her smile and continued easily, 'But you've been out to them on and off, I expect?'
    'Nope!' Stephanie tossed her head. There was a brittle gleam in her eyes as though she was challenging comment.
    Carol had more sense than to make any. She recognised quickly that she had stumbled on to the wrong subject altogether with which to open up a conversation. While she was trying to appear only lightly touched by the tense atmosphere, the young girl whirled herself round and down the steps as though being purposefully mocking. Coming to rest in a sitting position on the sloping wall, she proceeded to count off on her fingers, a bitter edge to her flippant tones, 'Five summers ago I went with Janey Bennett's family to Cyprus. The one after that Heather Hawkins' parents took me on their yacht with them. I went with them again the following summer, round the Greek islands. Then Anne Penny's married sister let me stay in their flat with them in Gibraltar. That was last year. But she said she was too busy to have me this year.' Stephanie lifted her slim shoulders in a gesture of light-hearted resignation, but her