I might try something formal in the summer, when I know you better.' 'I'm not very good yet, so I just do quick drawings. 'You have to look and watch first, and then do lots of sketches,' she explained. She suspected that he had expected a portrait like that of Commander Purcell and was disappointed. 'I don't mind you drawing me if you want to,' Geoffrey said, 'as long as I can see what you've done.' He made no comment when she did so, favourable or otherwise. 'Like this, Julia? Like this?' Sometimes she found twelve-year-old boys hard to understand. I persuaded Antony to pose once, but he was hopeless.' It wasn't so much that Antony couldn't keep still, but that he would play the fool, waggling his fingers in his ears and sticking out his tongue.

I've only got us now that we're come home. It was Antony, told in confidence by Sarah, who blurted it out later. Julia wanted to draw him but was too shy to ask. They aren't as hot either.' His face was crimson from the heat of the fire. They don't taste as nice somehow, if you haven't cooked them yourself. 'Muffins come up on a special plate at home,' he said, 'with a silver cover like the dome of St. He was toasting muffins at the time, kneeling up on the hearthrug. 'It's so comfortable, somehow,' he said, as if the Rectory were not. Occasionally she dreamt of the old days, always waking afterwards with an oppressive sense of loss. Lying awake in bed she would sometimes picture herself returning to the familiar buildings, being greeted by Miranda Cartwright and welcomed by Miss Teasdale, the art mistress. She had been sorry to leave hers she missed it still. He's delicate, Mother says.' Geoffrey admitted to being envious. They had to pray for him in church, three Sundays running.' Such a necessity was obviously a source of pride. 'He did go to school once, but he nearly died during his first term. Why was Antony educated at home, for instance, when his brothers had been sent away to school? They could ask him questions they felt unable to ask of the other Mackenzies. 'Mother sews a lot,' he said when Julia admitted that it was hers. Presumably Geoffrey sensed something was wrong for he changed the subject quickly, admiring instead the embroidery lying on a nearby chair.

They explained, reluctantly because of the voyage's end, that Commander Purcell had been about to depart for the Far East with his ship at the time. 'Why the tropical uniform?' was his next question. Gwen and Julia looked at each other but made no comment. He wanted to know about Commander Purcell's portrait hanging on the wall and was surprised to learn that it had been painted by Mrs. He was quiet but observant, sometimes content to sit in watchful silence, sometimes asking questions. Geoffrey often came over to Hillcrest during the Easter holidays, at first with Antony but later, as he became more at ease, on his own.

Julia's Story by Ruth Elwin Harris