"Stop being so smug," Esmée Bodet said, tossing her hair back. "I
told you she'd just sneaked off somewhere and there wasn't any point
worrying about her."
"But how could she just sneak off somewhere!" Erna cried. "We tied her
so she couldn't possibly get away."
"That's right," Flip agreed.
"What happened, Pill, what happened?" Erna begged.
"Oh," Flip said airily, "my fairy godmother came and rescued me."
"But where were you during tea? Jackie and I missed tea looking for you
and Signorina almost gave us Deportment Marks because we wouldn't tell
her what we were doing."
"Oh, I went over to Thônon," Flip told her, "and had tea with a duke."
Erna and the other girls were looking at her with something like
respect and for the first time Flip felt that she had triumphed.
8
The next afternoon, after Sunday Quiet Hour, Flip slipped off to the
chateau again. Paul was expecting her.
"Hello, Flip!" Paul shouted as soon as he saw her.
"Hello!" she shouted back. She hurried across the rough ground to where
he was waiting for her by the loose shutter. But when she reached him
they both fell silent, somehow overcome with shyness. Paul ran his
fingers over the flaking paint of the shutter and Flip searched about
wildly in her mind for something to say. Gloria or Sally or Esmée would
know what to say to a boy; they had all been on dates; but Flip could
not think of any words that would not sound inane.
Then she looked at Paul's face, at the shadowed eyes and the strong
sensitive line of jaw, and the way his mouth was tight as though his
teeth were clenched and she felt that the things that Gloria or Sally
or Esmée would say to Paul would not be the right things. She knew that
they would say them, anyhow, unaware of their wrongness, and that they
would think that Paul was handsome and romantic; but as she watched
Paul standing there silently she felt with a sudden rush of confidence
that he would prefer someone whose words were clumsy and inadequate,
but honest, to someone whose words were glib and superficial; and this
sudden sureness broke her fear of the silence and she no longer sought
frantically for words.
Then, because there was no longer any need to fear the silence she was
able to break it. "Where's Ariel?"
"He stayed home with my father," Paul said.
"Are you sure you don't mind because I came back?" she asked. "Because
if you'd rather be alone I'll just go on walking somewhere."
"No--no--" Paul said quickly. "I'm sorry. We live alone and sometimes
my father goes a whole day without saying anything. Of course some days
he talks a great deal and reads to me but I get used to being with
someone and not talking."
"Who is your father?" Flip asked. "Where do you live?"
"My father's a professor of philosophy. He used to teach in Lauzanne
but now he's at the Sorbonne. At least he's there usually, I mean. This
year he's on a Sabbatical leave and he's writing a book. That's why he
doesn't talk much. He spends hours in his study and then he comes to
the table and I don't think he has any idea what he eats. He just sits
there and goes on thinking."
"Where do you live?" Flip asked again.
"At the gate house to the chateau. But I stay over here most of the
time and then I'm sure I won't disturb my father and he won't notice me
and think I ought to be in school. Besides there's something I want to
find out."
"What?"