I and My True Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

helpfully.
    “No good enticing Clark with whipped cream,” Hallis said. “He’s strictly a seventeenth-century man.”
    “Yes,” Clark said calmly, “just an old founding-father type.” He eyed Hallis for a moment, and then turned to Kate. “I’ll visit you one day and you can explain everything to me. I’m sure you’ll do it kindly.”
    “And where do you live in California?” Hallis asked, snatching the conversation quickly away from Clark. “In the misty belt or the thirsty belt?”
    “We’ve a ranch in northern California,” Kate answered safely. “In the foothills of the Sierras, south-east of San Francisco.”
    “Cowboys and palominos and beefsteaks?”
    She shook her head. “Peach trees and apricots, figs and vines.”
    Hal lis stared for a moment. “A ranch—of course, how stupid of me.” But he looked more amused than stupid.
    Lieutenant Turner said suddenly, “Ranch is a Spanish word. It didn’t always mean cattle.” He looked encouragingly at Kate.” In Texas, we’ve—”
    “Ah, you’re from Texas?” Hallis asked, and Turner fell silent.
    “How wonderful!” Miriam Hugenberg broke in. Washington gossip didn’t seem to interest the lieutenant and he wouldn’t think about Korea. Thankfully now, Miriam plunged on. “And there’s California across the table. Really, you never need to travel in America: all you have to do is to live in Washington and meet people. It saves so much energy!”
    “To spend on travelling in Europe,” Hallis said, glancing with veiled annoyance at Miriam Hugenberg’s pink and white face. Not that he disapproved of travelling in Europe: he went there each summer. But he had sensed Miriam’s tactics and he knew he’d get little more conversation with Kate.
    “Well”—Miriam shrugged her shoulders—“where else is there to travel?”
    “Texas doesn’t approve,” Hallis announced with a mischievous smile, his eyebrows raised expectantly.
    Bob Turner studied the flowers on the table.
    “Lieutenant Turner may have learned to appreciate travelling in America,” Mrs. Clark suggested, her soft voice amiable enough. But she looked at Hallis with a critical eye.
    Sylvia said quickly, “Isn’t it odd, though, how you never seem to meet anyone who was born in Washington? What happens to them?”
    “They leave to escape us, I expect,” Martin Clark said. “But you, Sylvia, are almost Washington. Your part of Virginia across the Potomac just escaped the city’s clutches. Amy is from New Orleans. And I’m from Boston. So is Payton.” He grinned suddenly. “Which proves Boston is rather versatile. And Hallis—where did you come from, Hallis?”
    There was just the hint of a pause. “Indiana.”
    “The corn belt,” Clark said reflectively. “And Miriam?”
    “Born in Sweden, educated in England, finished in Switzerland—not literally, I hope; lived in Paris, married in Rome, widowed in Brussels. That’s how you are when you’ve a father, then a husband, in the Foreign Service.” She turned to the lieutenant. “So you will forgive me if I’m confused? Some day, I do promise to visit Texas. And then my confusion will be complete.” She laughed gaily.
    Bob Turner went through the agony of sudden blankness of mind. He could think of nothing to say that wouldn’t sound impolite. He looked across the table and saw Kate was watching him.
    Amy Clark said, “I wish it were. I mean, that bit about travelling when you’re in the Foreign Service.” Her voice developed an unexpected edge. “It seems that if you want to get a decent job abroad, you really ought—first of all—to make either money or a name for yourself in an outside profession. But if you take all the required examinations and training for the Foreign Service—why, you spend the first ten years of your life filing papers in Washington.”
    “Oh, come now—” Hallis said, raising a disapproving furrow on his brow. A snide attack on me, he thought. And wrong, too. Martin