the scene your experience is as limited as mine,’ finished Jane triumphantly.
Dallas sighed. ‘All right, maybe I don’t know any more than you do, but at least my common sense tells me that Paris will never get around to discussing marriage lines and wedding rings with you, at any rate.’
‘Paris acts a whole lot older than his years,’ said Jane, examining her fingernails.
‘That I can believe,’ remarked Dallas dryly. ‘And that’s another thing. He’s experienced, and you’re not.’ She reached for her handbag and lit a cigarette. ‘In any case, he’s only spending six months in the London office, isn’t he? When does his term give out? Soon, I imagine, and what then?’
Jane turned away. ‘He has another eight weeks yet.’ She looked at Dallas over her shoulder. ‘The fact that he is actually learning the business from the bottom up should prove to you that he’s not just a playboy.’
‘At his father’s instigation, I’ve no doubt,’ replied Dallas, inhaling deeply, savouring the relaxation the cigarette engendered.
‘You just won’t try to understand,’ cried Jane angrily. ‘You’re so complacent! So sure you know everything!’
‘I’m not sure of anything right now,’ replied Dallas, frowning.
‘You’re becoming just like Charles,’ retorted Jane, in disgust. ‘You’re only twenty-two, but you act at least fifteen years older.’
‘Don’t you dare criticise Charles,’ exclaimed Dallas. ‘At least he’s a decent, honest man.’
Jane flounced away to wash and change, and Dallas sighed again, and began dishing up the meal for which she had no appetite. It was always like this. They argued and argued, and got no further forward. Dallas felt sure that Jane secretly thought that she was jealous, whereas in actual fact she would have been glad to see Jane dating a boy with a background similar to their own. It was all very well for Jane to talk, but she was not to know that their father had told Dallas to take care of Jane, to look after her always, for she was too much like their mother, who had run away with another man when Dallas was only ten. Jane, at five, had not known much about it, but Dallas had felt the pain and frustration that enveloped her father, never to leave him entirely.
Her father had been an archaeologist, and had spent many weeks away from his wife and family on ‘digs’. Dallas had always been interested to hear all about it on his return, but her mother had hated the lonely life she was forced to lead, and had eventually found someone who could provide her with all the entertainment she craved. They had seen little of her since the divorce, and now she was living in America, and their only communications were birthday and Christmas greetings.
So Dallas felt doubly responsible for her young sister, and there was no one, apart from Charles, to whom she could turn. And she hesitated turning to him, anyway, because he and Jane had never hit it off and were openly antagonistic towards one another. It was for this reason that Dallas had delayed their wedding for so long, concerned about Jane’s reactions to living with Charles.
Charles lived with his mother in Maidenhead. His mother owned a large house there, and as she was a semi-invalid, being permanently confined to a wheel-chair, it had been decided that Dallas and Charles should live with her after their wedding. Dallas got along quite well with Mrs. Jennings, and found this idea acceptable, but Jane was too carefree and careless of other people’s feelings to ever get along with the Jennings family for long.
After Jane had left that evening, Dallas went into the bedroom to get changed before Charles arrived. He was coming to spend an evening at the flat. They didn’t go out together very often; Charles liked television and so long as he could see his favourite programmes he didn’t mind staying in. Dallas sometimes wished they could go out more often, but with the memory of her mother’s behaviour still strong in her mind, she crushed these thoughts with impatient intolerance.
Now she stripped off the dark brown tweed suit which she had worn for school and glanced half critically at herself in the dressing-table mirror. Did Jane really think she was getting like Charles?
Then she shrugged such thoughts away as being disloyal. After all, teaching a class of eight-year-olds as she did required that she dress with some modicum of severity, for otherwise her youthful appearance would maintain no discipline. Besides, Charles did like her in plain clothes and he liked the french pleat in which she invariably dressed her hair. Both girls had long hair, but whereas Jane’s was blonde, Dallas’s was a glorious red-gold in colour. Studying her features momentarily, she thought that apart from her eyes, her hair was probably her most attractive feature. And Charles was thirty-seven, after all, and naturally he didn’t want everyone to think he was going out with a girl far too young for him, her musing continued.
When her thoughts strayed to other things Jane had said, she felt a little disturbed. Her relationship with Charles had never troubled her before, but was it possible that the reasons she had accepted Charles so readily were mixed up with a longing for security and someone else to turn to?
She determinedly thrust such thoughts aside. She was becoming fanciful, and allowing Jane’s behaviour to play upon her thoughts too much. It would not do! It simply would not do!
Shedding her underwear, she walked into the tiny alcove which they called a bathroom, and showered hastily. Then she dressed in a warm green woollen dress, which had seen better days, and rewound her hair into its knot. She refused to consider her reflection any further. Charles liked her like this, and he was all that mattered.
Charles arrived at eight o’clock, punctual to the minute. He was a man of medium height and build, only slightly veering to plumpness. He had known the girls since they were children, having been friendly with their father, and when their father died quite suddenly he had been responsible for getting them this flat, and dealing with the sale of the house in Earl’s Court which had been too big and expensive for them to keep on alone.
He kissed Dallas warmly, and said: ‘Hello, darling. How are you? You’re looking a little peaky this evening.’
Dallas shrugged. ‘Oh, can’t you guess, Charles? I’ve had another row with Jane.’
‘Over Paris Stavros?’
‘What else?’
‘Well, I wish you wouldn’t, Dallas,’ said Charles, rather irritatedly. ‘After all, she isn’t a child, and sooner or later she has got to learn that all the apples on the branch aren’t sweet ones.’
‘Don’t be pompous,’ said Dallas, sighing. ‘Jane is my responsibility, after all, and I can’t just let her ruin her life.’
‘You’re over-dramatising the situation, as usual,’ retorted Charles, shaking his head. ‘Paris Stavros is only eighteen, when all’s said and done. He’s not had time to build up much of a reputation! You’d think he was a lecherous old playboy to hear you talk!’
Dallas had to smile at this, and she lit a cigarette thoughtfully, waiting for Charles’s exclamation: ‘Dallas, must you smoke so much?’
She shook her head. ‘Why not? I don’t smoke all day. I deserve some relaxation, don’t I?’
Charles deigned not to answer this, and seating himself in front of the television set, said: ‘Is there anything exciting on this evening?’
‘There’s that detective series you enjoy,’ remarked Dallas, feeling strangely restless. ‘Charles! Why don’t we go to the pictures, for a change?’
Charles glanced round frowning. ‘We never go out on Thursday evenings,’ he exclaimed, aggrieved.
‘Oh, all right, all right!’ Dallas sank down on to the couch beside him. ‘Have you had a busy day?’
Charles was an accountant, with a firm here in the city.
‘So-so,’ he answered absently. ‘Oh, look, Dallas. The programme is just starting!’
Dallas nodded, and