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~ doubts eae’. ae Pe ee . . Be weet sagt yh eg 2 sk a pe nase: ’ “market, which arrive T Wag she stil in doubt! Ong jusi does not know. ragther had af slong “been her ‘ gobfidadt She had not want marty Donald tefore goine : ta tall her Jtbther about Aim, She insisted Loy returning to her mothers eine in the middie of the war to Reve her Srat baby. She walled ber mother to her wheo Donald disappeared, Where carsree the day & E % 5 cs ee7 5 And from that moment Mra. _ . Dunbar nad beer at ber-aide con- giantly and had helped her ghrough all Ber troubles. The urge totum to ber again must have been almost irresistible, and Melinda must have been despers ately iorn in hears and mind, But she held back. Something even sitanger than her love for hes mother. her Jove ioe har own poibtiey, hes own way af Life. was polling her fo anether dirertion, ang she dare nat speak, for she kngw that if'she Rad even finted thnk she was about io fatio Donacd and te tage her chidre with fet, Mrs, Trinba c “would fave immediately mobilised every security forse in Fara pe - an America. The Er iday apened normally, with Melinda RPPRaTiB Ss ne mere depressed ar preoccupied than usual. After breaklast she went. of in her car to the “big” was held twice a week in Geneva, Oe On other Mornings she would do ihe dually shonping oat ihe ordinary “seal siarket hear ie that. She was gone quite a while and when she relurned It was evident tat someihing bad hap- pened g She wag Incandescent ‘Hement.. The die had st. Har decision was There were so more She Whrried into the flst, alarost thr gown her morniqg'’s Bar chates. and bayned exciterdivyg to her bnother to Leth her about phe * Geb loveliest things * that Bad hapgened ta her. ; Mrs, Dunbar eannet fermen owhat the ‘setond wes. eae wer © se ait ihe fleet was that a friegd ef Calra days called Robin, Mar hed met her accidentally in thle ndirket and invited her and tp cifidren to epend a week-end wi him and his wife io their villa af Perriter As ate might have digiculty in “finding the villa, be hud said he would meet bec in the lobby of a Montreux hotel—Mrs. Dunbar oes fk oo rendiieet whether Melinda mentioned the hotel by cpamemat 4.30 that afternoon. tanow kaow that tis” chang méeling with an old friend it Cairne” wae probably aniny way to the extent that if h ra it. had been Melinda had known in her Cotra- days who bad been selected} as the guide fa take her to Do ‘g@e knew that there was ¢fr- idialy is be ne“ week-end. with ike “chdidrena at his ville gat erviteiy . Was ahe playing a careful and indeed cunning role? it would be so unlike Melinda who. as Ber yother and dose ixlends have repeatediy xtressed. to i Was ot a decelifil. person, was on the contrary frank and ximple and a pour lar, Yet, what is ene to. think ? That even at this moment Melinda did not know what she i was about to do ? Her immediaie actions are _gapable of two inieraretations ¢ EMther thal she did indecd think she was taking the children to tha house of aqme old friends, or she was taking them to meet aiher they had mot seen far ang whe had oo fact naer get ayes on dis baby daughter. For she declared that she must buy “Pinkers” go new coat &f some new shoes, atid she took thb baby and Fergus with her anit wernt at again to the shops. She-relurned some time. inted, showed cher mother the things she hed bought, pot the baby to bat and busied herself about the hopse-—-aull in a slale of some expiternent. he was probable doing her ons packing af tiiis Hime, She had aid Thee must fesve at 3 pete, wet eee RP fost befare _lunchean Mrs. Dypnbar tound that neither she or Melinda had UC Money, She tald Melinda to ying up the bank and find out their balance amid it as decided that ter tunch wifen ye Hawk © Fe: pened Metiges roubd . dive sere and ash a _ OR RQUE ced Len Sibata i att Put afiee seneh action seemed tO Bet I ahic after they tad fininffed Mebnda gat at the table, play pts resBessly with a half-ermmplied Eiads of wine, deepo to thoughts? whith from. the lock of strain a jension on her face, were iat from happy. Mra, Dhinbar had te remind her that she would be late af she did sot horry, and with @ visikie efort Melinda shook off fer abstraction and drove olf to the buck where she cashed @ cheque for 700 Swiss. francs-—at LESt time roughky £60. She arrived back just before 3. having paid = garare bill of 5G Swiss francs, and bought some fabe powder asd Upstic ‘ing forgotten aspirin, Mbps. Dunbar hed particularly agped her to buy. . she had ald & parcel whigh she told her mother eentanedta epee er Ey