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Mel.’
    Even by my parent I still liked occasionally to be called a girl.
    When I went up to bed it struck me that again something had been forgotten. This time it was Sally’s ‘few things’.
     
    Naturally it was the first matter Miss Garvice mentioned.
    ‘I’m very sorry. I forgot. I think it must have been the rain,’ I continued, excusing myself like an adolescent to authority.
    Miss Garvice very slightly clucked her tongue. But her mind was on something else. She went to the door of her room.
    ‘Serena!’
    ‘Yes, Miss Garvice?’
    ‘See that I’m not disturbed for a few minutes, will you, please? I’ll call you again.’
    ‘Yes, Miss Garvice.’ Serena disappeared, mousily shutting the door.
    ‘I want to tell you something in confidence.’
    I smiled. Confidences pre-announced are seldom worth while.
    ‘You know our routine here. We’ve been making various tests on Sally. One of them roused our suspicion.’ Miss Garvice scraped a Swan Vesta on the composition strikerwhich stood on her desk. For the moment she had forgotten the relative cigarette. ‘Did you know that Sally was pregnant?’
    ‘No,’ I replied. But it might provide an explanation. Of a few things.
    ‘Normally, of course, I shouldn’t tell you. Or anyone else. But Sally is insuch a hysterical state. And you say you know of no relatives?’
    ‘None. What can I do?’
    ‘I wonder if you would consider having her to stay with you? Not at once, of course. When we discharge her. Sally’s going to need a friend.’
    ‘She won’t come. Or she wouldn’t. I’ve already pressed her.’
    Miss Garvice now was puffing away like a traction engine. ‘Why did you do that?’
    ‘I’m afraid that’s my business.’
    ‘You don’t know who the father is?’
    I said nothing.
    ‘It’s not as if Sally were a young girl. To be perfectly frank, there are things about her condition which I don’t like.’
    It was my turn for a question.
    ‘What about the accident? Hasn’t that affected matters?’
    ‘Strangely enough, no. Although it’s nothing less than a miracle. Of one kind or the other,’ said Miss Garvice, trying to look broad-minded.
    I felt that we were unlikely to make further progress. Assuring Miss Garvice that in due course I should invite Sally once more, I asked again if I could see her.
    ‘I am sorry. But it’s out of the question for Sally to see anyone.’
    I was glad that Miss Garvice did not revert to the subject of Sally’s few things, although, despite everything, I felt guilty for having forgotten them. Particularly because I had no wish to go back for them. It was out of the question even to think of explaining my real reasons to Miss Garvice, and loyalty to Sally continued to weigh heavily with me; but something must be devised. Moreover I must not takeany step which might lead to someone else being sent to Sally’s house. The best I could think of was to assemble some of my own ‘things’ and say they were Sally’s. It would be for Sally to accept the substitution.
    But the question which struck me next morning was whether the contamination in Sally’s house could be brought to an end by steps taken in the house itself; or whether it could have influence outside. Sally’s mysterious restlessness, as reported by Miss Garvice, was far from reassuring; but on the whole I inclined to see it as an aftermath or revulsion. (Sally’s pregnancy I refused at this point to consider at all.) It was impossible to doubt that immediate action of some kind was vital. Exorcism? Or, conceivably, arson? I doubt whether I am one to whom the former would ever strongly appeal: certainly not as a means of routing something so apparently sensible to feeling as to sight. The latter, on the other hand, might well be defeated (apart from other difficulties) by that stone strong-box of a library. Flight? I considered it long and seriously. But still it seemed that my strongest motive in the whole affair was pity for Sally. So I