Thursday evening found me at the Lessing's bungalow. Mrs. Lessing
was in evidence this time, in a soft black gown that accentuated the
pallor of her face. The evening did not correct my first impressions
of her. She shook hands limply, contributed a few remarks about the
weather, and then subsided on the couch in silence. Dinner was laid
on a small round table near the window, and Mary Lessing came in from
the kitchen with uprolled sleeves and a big apron tied about her.
"We do our own chores here, Doctor Haverill," she said. "Do you want
to make yourself useful?"
I rose promptly. Lessing had not yet appeared and my _tête-à-tête_
with his wife was not exhilarating. I followed her out into the
kitchen, where she gave me a can-opener and a box of sardines.
"Turn those out for me, please. And if you have any hygienic
aversion to canned goods, smother it. We live on them here."
"You find it far from the village?"
She smiled, quizzically. "A good way. Besides, the tradespeople
here aren't exactly genial. So we subsist on boxes from the city.
It gives you all the real pleasure of a desert island without the
risks. Put them on that plate, will you? You see, by the time the
box arrives and gets hauled up from the station we've generally
forgotten what we ordered, so there's all the excitement of discovery
as well. This time it was olives. Do you realize the joy of
unexpected olives in the wilderness?"
"I'm going to."
"That's the right spirit! Living in the country teaches one a
becoming humility. There are more things to open. Perhaps it was a
mistake to ask you out here, but in any case I could hardly have
palmed off these peaches as grown in our own garden, because we
haven't got one."
She was standing at the table, drying crisp salad on a white cloth.
The position showed me only her profile, with a little wave of bronze
hair escaping near one ear. "Do you think gardening is worth the
trouble?"
"When things like this grow in every department store? Perhaps not.
Good heavens, Doctor Haverhill, but you must _wash_ that can-opener!
Give it to me!"