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didn’t tell you, but she was quite fretful during the night.’
    ‘Oh, Gerry, I’m a selfish pig—I never heard a sound, and we share the same room ...’ Teddy looked as though she was going to burst into tears.
    ‘Shall we go, then?’ Gerry put in quickly—having got Teddy this far towards agreeing to see Dr Bidley, she didn’t want to lose any ground.
    ‘We’ll go and see him about Sarah, he can have a look at Emma as well,’ was as far as Teddy would compromise.
    There were several people in the village surgery and they exchanged good evenings as they went in. The twins had ceased their crying and looked around the cream-emulsioned walls with interest, completely breaking the ice in the waiting room with their charming gurgles, and soon there was a steady hum of chatter as they waited their turn to go in.
    When they went in, Gerry carrying Emma and Teddy carrying Sarah, they found it was not Dr Bidley, who had seen Teddy through her difficult confinement, but a much younger man who looked to be not more than thirty. His twinkling blue eyes in no way endeared him to Teddy, though. She told him who they were, then asked sharply :
    ‘Where’s Dr Bidley?’
    Gerry heard the aggressive note in her voice and hoped the new doctor wasn’t easily offended. Teddy wasn’t often aggressive these days, but it looked as though she’d taken an immediate dislike to the new man.
    ‘Dr Bidley is taking a well-earned holiday,’ he replied, seeming in no way put out as he addressed Teddy, his professional eyes taking in more than she knew. ‘He’s gone to visit his son in Australia, so I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with me for three months.’ They made quite a crowd in the small consulting room. ‘I’m Paul Meadows, by the way—now which one of you is here to see me—I have quite a busy evening.’
    ‘It’s Sarah—she’s teething,’ Teddy told him, thrusting the baby at him, and in case he had any idea of asking Gerry and Emma to leave and so give him more space in the room, she said, ‘I’m a widow—my sister comes everywhere with me.’
    ‘Does she indeed—and does your sister ever go anywhere by herself?’ He had taken Sarah from her and was checking her over.
    ‘She doesn’t need to—we’re quite happy the way we are.’
    Dr Meadows didn’t answer her, but continued to examine Sarah. ‘How old are the twins?’ he asked after a moment.
    Gerry kept quiet, letting Teddy do all the talking. She felt her confidence growing in this man who gave Sarah back to Teddy and promptly lifted Emma out of her arms and proceeded to examine her the way he had done Sarah. She had a feeling he saw far more than any words she could have found to explain that Teddy needed his help.
    She received the shock of her life, though, when he handed Emma back to her to find it was her he turned his attention to and not Teddy as she had been waiting for.
    ‘And what about you?’ he asked, and she turned her startled eyes to him. ^
    ‘I’m perfectly well,’ she began. ‘It’s T ...'
    ‘How much do you weigh?’
    ‘I haven’t weighed myself in ages,’ Gerry told him. 'But it’s not me ...’
    ‘How’s your appetite?’
    By now Teddy was turning and taking notice, seeming to see for the first time that Gerry had lost weight, while her own weight after the children had been born had returned to normal.
    Then Paul Meadows was pulling down Gerry’s lower eyelids and saying a course of iron tablets wouldn’t go amiss.
    ‘What’s wrong with her?’ That was Teddy, for the first time in an age coming the older sister—which she was by twenty minutes.
    ‘Without examining her completely I’d say she was on the way to becoming thoroughly worn out,’ he said, not making any bones about it.
    Gerry started to say, ‘I’m all right,’ but Teddy seemed to be so completely shaken, she was answering the doctor’s questions like a lamb, and they seemed to have forgotten completely that the subject of their