“Are you lost?” he asked.

” Not exactly. I’m just wandering round. I’ve come from Rozmary Pool.”

He grinned. ” Well, this is a second-class road. It doesn’t lead anywhere much except to Bedivere House … and then back on to the main road. Only it gets a bit rougher. Your best plan, if you want to get on to the main road, is to turn back.”

” Thank you,” I said. ” But I’ll go on for a bit and look at Bedivere House. What’s it like?”

” Oh, you can’t miss it. It’s the grey house with the green shutters.”

” Sounds interesting—especially with a name ‘like that.”

” Oh, I don’t know,” he said with a grin. ” I live there, you see.” He had his back to the light, and then I noticed that the tips of his rather prominent ears were faintly pink and pointed.

He had stepped back. ” Goodbye,” he said.

” Goodbye.”

As I started off a woman came into sight. She was tall and slim and she had a mass of white curly hair.

” Ennis,” she called. ” Oh, there you are.”

She glanced at me as I passed, and as I rounded the bend I saw the house at once. The boy had been right; there was no mistaking it.

There were the green shutters. It was more than a cottage—a house of some seven or eight rooms, I imagined. There was a green gate opening on to a lawn with a flower border. Inside it were plants which looked like tomatoes ; and both the doors of the glass porch and the house itself were open.

I drove a little way past, then got out of the car and, shading my eyes, looked round me at the view.

I was aware of the woman and the boy coming back; they were arm in arm; and together they went into Bedivere House.

I was certain then that I had seen Louisa Sellick; but I did wonder who the boy could be. Ennis. I believed there was a Cornish saint of that name; there was no doubt of whom he reminded me. Of some of the portraits I had seen at Pendorric—and, of course, of Roc.

I was changing for dinner when I next saw Roc, and still thinking of the boy to whom I had spoken near Rozmary. By now my imagination had made the resemblance between him and Roc more startling. Roc must have looked exactly like that at thirteen or four teen, I told myself. I could picture him playing in the graveyard with Rachel and Morwenna; riding his horse out to Jim Bond’s when it cast a shoe; swimming, boating . I was already dressed when he came into our room, and was sitting at the window watching the waves below us.

” Hallo,” he called. ” Had a good day?”

” Yes, Roc. And you?”

I stood up and found myself staring at the tips of fais ears. Surely only Pendorrics had such ears.

” Very good.”

” I took the Morris on to the moors,” I told him. ” I wish I’d been with you.”

” So do I.”

He picked me up and swung me off my feet.

” It’s good to have you to come home to,” he said. ” I’ve talked to Charlie about your looking into estate affairs with me. We’d be partners then. What do you say?”

” I’m so glad. Roc.”

” You were the brains behind that studio,” he said. ” We need brains in Pendorric.”

I had a sudden vision of my father at work in the studio, and, as whenever I thought of him I must think also of his death, I knew that a shadow passed across my face.

Roc went on quickly: ” We need brains, now that the days of the grands seigneurs are over. It’s the farm workers who get the best end of the stick these days. They’ve got their unions to look after them. I’ve never heard of a union to protect the interests of the poor landowners. Rents must not be put up; repairs must be done. You see how we could use a business woman like you!”

” Oh Roc, I’m going to love it.”

He kissed me. ” Good. You’re in business.”

” Roc, you’re not worried, are you?”

” I’m not the worrying type … otherwise …”

“Otherwise you would be?”

” Oh, darling, what’s the good of worrying? If we can’t afford to go on in the old way, we’ve got to adjust ourselves to the new. Temper the wind to the shorn lamb, or is it the other way round? My God, we’re shorn all right—fleeced in fact. Left, right, and centre.” I had put my arms about his neck and my fingers almost involuntarily caught his ears—a habit they had. He was smiling and I was vividly reminded of the boy I had seen that afternoon.

” Roc,” I said, ” I saw a pair of ears exactly like yours today.” He burst out laughing. Then he looked grave. ” I thought they were unique. You’ve always told me so.”

” They’re Pendorric ears.” I touched them with my forefinger.

“And they match your eyes. They give you that satyr’s look.”

” For which I have to be truly thankful, because it was that which made you fall in love with me.”

” He had the same sort of eyes … now I come to think of it.”

” Tell me where you found this paragon.”

” It was on the moor near Rozmary Pool. I asked him the way and he told me he lived at a place called Bedivere House and his name was Ennis.”

There was just a short pause, but during it I fancied—or did I think this afterwards? —that Roc’s expression had become a little guarded.

“What a lot of information be gave! After all you only asked the way, didn’t you?”

” It was all very naturally given. But the likeness was really astonishing. I wonder if he’s related to you.”

” There’s Pendorric blood all over the duchy,” said Roc. ” You see we were a roistering riotous band. Not that we were the only ones. The old days were very different from these. In those days it was God bless the Squire and his relations and make us mind our proper stations’; it was touching the forelock and thinking themselves lucky to have a place in the stables, the kitchens or the gardens. It was the droit de seigneur. Now of course it’s We’re as good as you and crippling taxation. Ah, the good old days have gone for ever. And talking of the rights of the squire … well, there’s your answer.

You walk round this countryside and you’ll discover traces of Pendorric in half the natives. It was the order of things. “

” You sound regretful. I believe you’re sighing for the old days.” He put his hand on my shoulder and smiled at me. Did I fancy that there was a hint of relief in his face, as though he had come up to a dangerous corner and had rounded it satisfactorily?

” Since I met and married Favel Farington,” he replied, ” I ask nothing more of life.”

And although he was smiling, I couldn’t doubt that he meant what he said; and, as usual, he had the power to disperse all my doubts and fears with a look, a word and a smile.

Roc kept his promise and the next day took me with him to his study, and, as much as he could in a short time, explained certain matters about the estate. It did not take me very long to grasp the fact that although we were by no means verging on bankruptcy we were in a way fighting a losing battle against the times.

Roc smiled at me ruefully. ” It’s like the tide slowly but surely creeping in. The end of the old way is not exactly imminent, but it’s creeping towards us. Mind you, we’ve hung on longer than most. I’d be sorry if we fell to the National Trust in my time.”

” You think it’s certain to happen. Roc?”

” Nothing in life is certain darling. Suppose I were to win a hundred thousand … I reckon that would put us on our feet for a few generations.”

” You’re not thinking of gambling?” I asked in alarm. He put his arm about me. ” Don’t worry,” he said. ” I never risk what I can’t afford to lose.” , ” You told me that before.”

” It’s only one of many things I’ve told you before. How much I love you, for one thing.”

” The conversation is wandering from the point,” I said with a laugh.

” That’s right,” he retorted. ” I know you’re going to be a good business woman. You’ll keep me on the straight path, won’t you? Things have been in a far worse state than they are now, I can assure you; and we’ve pulled through. Why, in my father’s day . “

” What happened then?”

“We were in much greater difficulties. Fortunately my mother brought enough to put us on our feet again.”

I stared at the open book before me, and instead of the columns of figures saw that sad sweet face under the blue-banded hat. There seemed no escape from Barbarina.

Roc, who was standing behind my chair, stooped suddenly and kissed the top of my head.

“Don’t let it worry you.

Something will turn up, you’ll see. It always does for me. Did I ever tell you I was born lucky? “

Strangely enough that was a very happy day for me, and the fact that the finances at Pendorric were not as sound as they should have been gave me a feeling of deep comfort.

I had begun to think that Roc was too much like his father and that my story was turning out to be too similar to that of Barbarina. But this was the difference: Barbarina had been married for her money when Roc’s father was in love with Louisa Sellick. Roc, needing money for Pendorric, as his father had, had met me, a penniless girl, and had married her.

Oh no, my story was very different from that of Barbarina.

Mrs. Penhalligan was making Cornish pasties when I went down to the kitchen.

She looked up flushed and bright-eyed when I entered; her pink cotton sleeves were rolled up above the elbow, her short fat fingers busy.

One of the twins was sitting under the table eating a pasty. ” Good afternoon, Mrs. Pendorric,” said Mrs. Penhalligan. ” Good afternoon, Mrs. Penhauigan.”

Mrs. Penhalligan went on rolling her pastry. ” Don’t do to let it hang about too long, ma’am,” she murmured apologetically. ” The secret be to make it and pop it into the oven as quick as you can. This be for Father. He’s terrible particular about his pasty and he do want one regular each night. So when I bake I do four or five for him. I keep them in a tin … they be all nice and fresh that way, though the best is them as is eaten straight from the oven.”

“I’ve come to ask what tobacco your father smokes. I thought I’d go along to see him when I have the time and take him something to smoke.”

A head popped over the side of the table. ” Beware the Ides of March,” said a voice low with prophecy.

” Oh give over. Miss Lowella, do,” said Mrs. Penhalligan.

“She’s been under my feet all day. Looking through the window, popping up here and there with her talk of Beware of this and that. Reckon she belongs to be in Bodmin Asylum.”

Lowella smiled and went into the bake house

” I don’t know,” grumbled Mrs. Penhalligan. ” That Miss Bective, she’s supposed to be looking after they two. Well, where be she to, half the time, I’m wondering.”

” You were going to tell me what tobacco.”

“That I were, and right good it is of you, ma’am. Tis Three Nuns—the Empire, you do know. His one extravagance. But then it’s only the two ounces a week he smokes and Maria and me like him to have his little treat.”

” I’ll remember.”

Lowella had come back; she was holding a small pasty in her hand. ” Someone won’t be wanting her supper like as not,” commented Mrs. Penhalligan.

Lowella regarded us both solemnly before crawling under the table.

“He’ll be that pleased,” went on Mrs. Penhalligan.

“I reckon hell be sitting out this afternoon. It’ll make his day.”

” I’ll be getting along,” I told her.

As I made for the door Lowella darted out from under the table and reached it before me.

” I say, Bride,” she said, ” I’ll come with you if you like—to see old Jesse, I mean.”

” Don’t bother,” I replied. ” I know the way.”

She shrugged her shoulders and went back into the kitchen, presumably to sit under the table and finish her pasty and now and then pop up to tell Mrs. Penhalligan or Maria or Hetty to beware the Ides of March.

Not far from the cottages was a house which had been turned into a general store. It was small, overcrowded, and run by a Mrs. Robinson who had come to Pendorric for a holiday twenty years before, realised that the nearest shop was two miles away, and had bought the house and made it into a shop. She sold among other things the brands of tobacco smoked by her neighbours, and kept stocks in readiness for them. So I had no difficulty in getting what I wanted.

As I came out of the shop I saw that the twins were waiting for me. I was not pleased, for I had wanted to be alone with the old man, but there was nothing I could do but accept their company as graciously as possible.