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household. The girl was impossible. What next? The Comte and the Comtesse? What should I find them like? And the girl was ill-mannered, selfish and cruel. And to have discovered this in five minutes of her company was disconcerting. What sort of environment, what sort of upbringing had produced such a creature?
    I looked at those walls with their priceless neglected pictures and in those few moments I thought: Perhaps the wisest thing would be to leave first thing in the morning. I might apologize to Monsieur de la Talle, agree that I had been wrong to come, and leave.
    I had wanted to escape from a fate which I knew, since my encounter with Mademoiselle Dubois (Splinters, poor thing), could be quite terrible. I had so desperately wanted to continue with work I loved;
    and because of that I had come here under false pretences and laid myself open to insult.
    I was so firmly convinced that I must go that I almost believed some instinct was warning me to do so. In that case I would not tempt myself by studying these pictures further. I would go to the room they had given me, and try to rest in preparation for the long journey back tomorrow.
    I walked towards the door and as I turned the handle it refused to move. Oddly enough in those seconds I felt
     
    a real panic. I could have imagined that I was a prisoner, that I could not escape if I wanted to; and then it seemed as though the very walls were closing in on me.
    My hand was limp on the handle and the door opened. Philippe de la Talle was standing outside. Now I under stood that the reason I couldn’t open it was that he had been on the point of coming in.
    Perhaps, I thought, they don’t trust me here. Perhaps someone always has to be with me in case I attempt to steal something. That was absurd, I knew, and it was unlike me to think illogically. But I had had scarcely any sleep for two nights and was deeply concerned about my future. It was understandable that I was not quite myself.
    “You were on the point of leaving, mademoiselle?”
    “I was going to my room. There seems no point in remaining. I have decided to leave tomorrow. I must thank you for your hospitality and I am sorry to have troubled you. I should not have come.”
    He raised his eyebrows.
    “You have changed your mind? It is because you think the repairs beyond your capacity?”
    I flushed angrily.
    “By no means,” I said.
    “These pictures have been badly neglected criminally neglected … from an artist’s point of view that is but I have restored far worse. I merely feel that my presence is resented in this place and that it would be better for you to find someone … of your own sex since that seems to be important to you.”
    “My dear Mademoiselle Lawson,” he said almost gently, ‘everything rests with my cousin to whom the pictures belong . to whom everything in the chateau belongs. He will be back within a few days. “
    “Nevertheless I think I should leave in the morning. I can repay you for your hospitality by giving you an estimate for restoring one of the pictures in the gallery which you will find useful when engaging someone else.”
    “I fear,” he said, ‘that my niece has been rude to you.
     
    My cousin will be annoyed with me if he does not see you. You should not take any notice of the girl. She’s quite ungovernable, when her father is away. He is the only one who can put fear into her. “
    I thought to myself then: I believe you are afraid of him too. And I was filled with almost as great a desire to see the Comte as I was to work on his pictures.
    “Mademoiselle, will you stay for a few days and at least hear what my cousin has to say?”
    I hesitated, then I said: “Very well, I will stay.”
    He seemed relieved.
    “I shall go to my room now. I realize I am too tired to work satisfactorily today. Tomorrow I will make a thorough study of the pictures in this gallery and when your cousin returns I shall have a clear estimate to give him.”
    “Excellent,”