Page:Encounters (Bowen).djvu/109

 passed from room to room, peering round him into corners, looking up to moulded cornices and ceilings.

Standing in the big front bedroom he saw himself reflected in the mirrored doors of a vast portentous wardrobe, and beamed back at his beaming, curiously-shadowed face. Behind him he saw Cicely seat herself on the edge of the wire mattress, and place her candle carefully beside her on the floor. The mahogany bedroom suite loomed up round them out of the shadows. She sensed his radiant satisfaction with relief.

"It is a lovely house," she said. "Oh, Herbert, I do hope you're going to be happy!"

"I hope we both are," he amended kindly. "We must have some people staying, Cicely. The Jenkins, and that lot. Entertain a bit—after all, my dear girl, we can afford it now!"

He was glad when she did not seem to realise how their circumstances had bettered—it gave him the opportunity for emphatic reminders.

They passed out on to the landing, and