MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN 27

"I will have to think,** said'he.

It was Charles who got the cheque from a
most reluctant Henri, who paid to save publicity.
It was Charles who remembered that he had had
an old Swiss nurse when he was a boy, and that
her address was still in the little red leather
address book that his mother had left in the
library when she died. He looked it up. He
arranged for Sidonie to make the journey into
Switzerland, and to stay with old Kaput. Old
Kaput was very kind. She was trained in such
things. She did not understand the fierce resent-
ment of the girl against the child who was com-
ing to her.

" When the baby is born, you will love it/* she
promised,

"I do not want a baby/* Sidonie replied.

She wrote pathetic letters to Charles, letters
brimming over with gratitude for all that he had
done for her, yet letters which mourned her own
fate and were full of self-pity. In the summer-
time, when there were scabious blowing on the
hillside, and the big-eyed daisies, the child was
bom. A girl. Old Kaput had been wrong, for
Sidonie took no interest in her daughter. Charles,
when he came over, took more interest than she
did. Now all that Sidonie wanted was to get
back to the theatre and to start again* buildhxg
up her career just where she had left off.

"Kaput can see after Doreen?" she said.

That was arranged.

In some ways she disappointed Charles, be-
cause he had hoped that she would learn to love
the child, and he felt sorry for the baby _ who