the days when Aunt Claudia was out alone, Lalla often came down and talked to her step-uncle. Uncle David was a long, thin man with dark hair and blue eyes. He had always wanted to have a daughter, so he was pleased that Aunt Claudia had a baby girl ward. From the very beginning he had been fond of Lalla, and as she grew older and became more of a companion, he got fonder still; but he had to keep what friends he and Lalla were a secret from Aunt Claudia, for from Aunt Claudia’s point of view he was not a suitable friend for Lalla, for he had a great failing. No matter how often Aunt Claudia explained to him about Lalla’s father, nor how often she repeated to him the praise and nice things people at the rink said about Lalla, she could not make him take Lalla’s skating seriously. He was the sort of man who thought skating, like games, was a lovely hobby, but a nuisance when you tried to be first-class at it. Obviously feeling as she did about skating for Lalla, Aunt Claudia did not like that sort of talk in front of her, so she did not let her see more of her step-uncle than she could help.
Uncle David was sitting on the leather top of his fender, drinking a whisky and soda, when Lalla came in. He was pleased to see her.
“How’s the seventh wonder of the world this evening?”
Lalla did not mind being teased by Uncle David. She sat down next to him on the top of the fender, and told him about her afternoon and how she had met Harriet.
“You can’t think how nice she is. She’s just the same age as me, but taller, but that’s because she’s been in bed for months and months, so her legs have got very long. She is so thin.” Lalla held up her hands about twelve inches apart. “Even the thickest part of her is not thicker than that, and she’s got the most gorgeous mother called Mrs Johnson and she’s got three brothers and a father. Oh, I do envy her, I wish I had three brothers.” She looked up anxiously at Uncle David. “I want awfully for her to come to tea with me, and me to go to tea with her; Nana thinks I won’t be able to because she isn’t rich like we are. Can you think of any way which would make her being poor not matter to Aunt Claudia?”
Uncle David was a sensible sort of man; he never treated Lalla as if, because she was a child, she was more silly than a grown-up. He lit a cigarette while he thought over what she had said.
“What’s the father?”
Lalla lowered her voice.
“Nana doesn’t know, but it’s some sort of a shop.”
Uncle David whispered back:
“You and I don’t care how anyone earns their living, do we, as long as it’s honest? But I don’t think your aunt’s going to cotton on to a shop.”
“I think it’s rather an odd sort of shop. Harriet said they only sold things that their Uncle William grew or shot or caught on his land in the country. And that was why they were so poor, because her Uncle William eats a lot so they only get what’s left.”
Uncle David was gazing at the carpet, as if by looking at it very hard he could see into the past.
“William Johnson. William Johnson. That strikes a note. I suppose Harriet didn’t say what her father’s Christian name was?”
“It’s George. Harriet said that Alec’s, the eldest of her brothers, real name’s George, but he’s called Alec because he couldn’t have the same Christian name as his father.”
Uncle David got up and began pacing up and down the carpet.
“William and George Johnson. Shiver my timbers, but that strikes a note somewhere.” Suddenly he swung round to Lalla. “I have it! You ask your Harriet where her father went to school. There were a couple of brothers at my prep. school, William and George. If it’s the same we might be able to do something.”
Lalla looked puzzled.
“Would it make it better that Harriet’s father has a shop because he went to the same school as you?”
Uncle David nodded.
“I can’t tell you why, but it does.” He looked at the clock. “You’d better be skipping, poppet, don’t want to blot your copybook by your being caught in here.” He gave her a kiss. “I like the sound of your Harriet; I’ll have a word with Nana about her, and if it’s the same George that I knew, I’ll talk your aunt into letting you know her. It’s time you had somebody of your own age to play with.”
Lalla rushed up the stairs, her eyes shining, and flung her arms round Nana’s neck.
“Oh, Nana, if only it was tomorrow afternoon now. Uncle David thinks he was at school with Harriet’s father, and if he was he’s going to make Aunt Claudia let me know her. Isn’t that the most gorgeous thing you ever heard?”
HARRIET’S FATHER HAD been at the same school as Uncle David. It did not take Lalla long to find this out, but it took what seemed to Lalla months and months, and was really only three weeks, before Uncle David had managed to see Harriet’s father. Although Lalla thought Uncle David was being terribly slow, he was really doing his best. First of all he went to Nana and asked what she thought of Harriet, and on learning that Nana had liked both her and Olivia, he made enquiries about the Johnsons and the shop. He tried to find some way in which he could meet George Johnson in the ordinary way, for he was certain that if he could produce Harriet’s father as an old school friend, and not as somebody who kept a peculiar sort of shop, it was much more likely that Aunt Claudia would think Harriet a good friend for Lalla. Meanwhile, whatever Aunt Claudia might think, Lalla and Harriet met every day at the rink, and every day they became greater friends.
Apart from meeting Lalla, Harriet was beginning to enjoy the rink. Every afternoon, just before the session started, she arrived, saw Sam, collected her skates and boots, put them on and was waiting, her eyes on the entrance, for Lalla and Nana several minutes before they could possibly arrive. If there had been no Lalla, Harriet would have taken twice as long learning to enjoy skating. Probably, if there had been no Lalla, she would still have been at the stage of creeping on to the rink, afraid to move far for fear of being knocked down. Because of Lalla’s lessons she had discovered quickly that moving about on ice was not really frightening, and that even cotton-woolish legs like her own could make skates move in the direction they wanted them to. Lalla was determined to make Harriet a skater. She could not spare much time from her own practice to give her a lesson, but she took her round with her to get her used to moving on skates, and she saw she only rested when there was dancing, and spent the afternoon moving round by herself.
“I know it’s dull just moving along like that, but you’ve got to do it, Harriet, or you’ll never get on to anything more interesting. Your legs look heaps better since you’ve come skating, honestly they do.”
Harriet knew that not only her legs, but all the rest of her looked better since she had come skating. Everybody at home remarked on it, and Dr Phillipson, when he came to see her, was so pleased that he said he should visit Mr Matthews an extra time as a thank offering. Harriet thought that was a very odd sort of thank offering, because she would not have wanted a visit from the doctor as a thank-you present herself; but she was glad Dr Phillipson was so pleased that he wanted to thank Mr Matthews, and if Mr Matthews liked a visit from the doctor she was glad he should have it. The person who was most proud of Harriet looking so much better was Alec. He felt as though it was he who was making her well, for after all it was his two shillings which paid for the skates, and so when it was wet and cold while he was on his paper round he did not mind as much as he might have done.
“It’d be much worse the weather being awful,” he told Toby, “If Harriet wasn’t getting any better, I should feel then it was all for nothing.”
Toby peered