Theatre Page 0,48

nice," said Julia.

Roger gave her a glance.

"It'll do you good, mummy. You're looking awfully fagged."

("Blast his eyes. No, I mustn't show I mind. Thank God, I can act.")

She laughed gaily.

"I had a sleepless night wondering what on earth we were going to do about your spots."

"I know, aren't they sickening? Tom says he used to have them too."

Julia looked at Tom. In his tennis shirt open at the neck, with his hair ruffled, his face already caught by the sun, he looked incredibly young. He really looked no older than Roger.

"Anyhow, his nose is going to peel," Roger went on with a chuckle. "He'll look a sight then."

Julia felt slightly uneasy. It seemed to her that Tom had shed the years so that he was become not only in age Roger's contemporary. They talked a great deal of nonsense. They ate enormously and drank tankards of beer. Michael, eating and drinking as sparingly as usual, watched them with amusement. He was enjoying their youth and their high spirits. He reminded Julia of an old dog lying in the sun and gently beating his tail on the ground as he looked at a pair of puppies gambolling about him. They had coffee on the lawn. Julia found it very pleasant to sit there in the shade, looking at the river. Tom was slim and graceful in his long white trousers. She had never seen him smoke a pipe before. She found it strangely touching. But Roger mocked him.

"Do you smoke it because it makes you feel manly or because you like it?"

"Shut up," said Tom.

"Finished your coffee?"

"Yes."

"Come on then, let's go on the river."

Tom gave her a doubtful look. Roger saw it.

"Oh, it's all right, you needn't bother about my respected parents, they've got the Sunday papers. Mummy's just given me a racing punt."*

("I must keep my temper. I must keep my temper. Why was I such a fool as to give him a racing punt?")

"All right," she said, with an indulgent smile, "go on the river, but don't fall in."

"It won't hurt us if we do. We'll be back for tea. Is the court marked out, daddy? We're going to play tennis after tea."

"I dare say your father can get hold of somebody and you can have a four."

"Oh, don't bother. Singles are better fun really and one gets more exercise." Then to Tom. "I'll race you to the boathouse."

Tom leapt to his feet and dashed off with Roger in quick pursuit. Michael took up one of the papers and looked for his spectacles.

"They've clicked all right, haven't they?"

"Apparently."

"I was afraid Roger would be rather bored alone here with us. It'll be fine for him to have someone to play around with."

"Don't you think Roger's rather inconsiderate?"

"You mean about the tennis? Oh, my dear, I don't really care if I play or not. It's only natural that those two boys should want to play together. From their point of view I'm an old man, and they think I'll spoil their game. After all the great thing is that they should have a good time."

Julia had a pang of remorse. Michael was prosy, near with his money, self-complacent, but how extraordinarily kind he was and how unselfish! He was devoid of envy. It gave him a real satisfaction, so long as it did not cost money, to make other people happy. She read his mind like an open book. It was true that he never had any but a commonplace thought; on the other hand he never had a shameful one. It was exasperating that with so much to make him worthy of her affection, she should be so excruciatingly bored by him.

"I think you're a much better man than I am a woman, my sweet," she said.

He gave her his good, friendly smile and slightly shook his head.

"No, dear, I had a wonderful profile, but you've got genius."

Julia giggled. There was a certain fun to be got out of a man who never knew what you were talking about. But what did they mean when they said an actress had genius? Julia had often asked herself what it was that had placed her at last head and shoulders above her contemporaries. She had had detractors. At one time people had compared her unfavourably with some actress or other who at the moment enjoyed the public favour, but now no one disputed her supremacy. It was true that she had not the world-wide notoriety of the film-stars; she had tried