A Little Moonlight. Бетти Нилс

silk blouse and sensible low-heeled shoes, since she intended to walk a great deal, went back to the dining-room and poured her mother’s coffee, then made small talk with Mr Harding and the Lagervelds and the van Tils. She had got to her feet with a cheerful remark about going on her way when Mevrouw Blom opened the door.

      ‘Serena—here you have a visitor.’ She beamed around the room and stood aside as Dr ter Feulen walked past her.

      The size of him made the room all at once smaller. Serena, who had never seen him in anything but exquisitely tailored dark grey suits and long white hospital coats, thought the tweeds he was wearing made him look younger, but this reflection was swallowed up in the supposition that he wanted her to go back to the hospital and do some work.

      His greeting to everyone in the room was polite and genial, and Mrs Proudfoot exclaimed, ‘Dr ter Feulen, how delightful—’

      He cut her short with practised ease. ‘I’m glad to see you looking so well.’ He rested his cool look on Serena. ‘I intend to show you something of Amsterdam, Serena.’ He paused and added, ‘Unless you had any other plans?’ His deep voice held a note of disbelief that she might have any ideas of her own, and she opened her mouth to refuse while at the same time a small voice inside her head reminded her that here was a chance to go sightseeing without any effort on her part, and, what was even nicer, she wouldn’t be on her own. The loneliness she had been feeling ever since her mother had told her that she would be spending the day with Mr Harding melted away under his look.