Dear Tiberius; (aka Nurse Nolan) by Susan Barrie Page B

sweet tooth, and is in any case badly spoiled. ”
    Lucy was surprised, for she had not imagined it was in him to spoil even an animal—only perhaps the sulky-eyed beauty in her flagrantly expensive suit, who sat between them at the table—and she bent down to offer Muffin a corner of cake. Muffin dispatched it quickly and then made his way around to her other side, hoping for more. But when he did not receive it immediately he turned his attention to Miss Harling, and by some unfortunate miscalculation on his part—or as the result of a failure of his canine instincts—he mistook the moment when she was lifting her cup to her lips for a moment when she was likely to provide him with something, and put his paws up on her lap.
    Lynette Harling had no great love for animals, and she recoiled instinctively from most dogs. On this occasion she thought instantly of her suit, and the damage those wide paws might do to the fine wool cloth, and in attempting to thrust Muffin away she allowed her teacup to overbalance into her saucer, and all at once her lap was full of tea.
    “ Oh! ” She sprang up, and the tears stood in her eyes as she viewed the damage to her skirt. Her delicate cheeks flamed with a mixture of anger and helplessness, and she stuttered helplessly, “ B-b-beastly dog! Oh, what am I going to do ...?” Her voice was a wail. “ My skirt is absolutely ruined! ”
    Lucy, who had snatched a handkerchief out of her bag and was doing her best to mop up the worst of the damage with its somewhat ineffectual assistance, strove hard to soothe her.
    “ Oh, no, I don ’ t think so for one moment. Miss Harling! This is only very weak tea, and by the time we ’ ve got it dried I don ’ t think there ’ ll even be a stain. And you can always send it to the cleaners— ”
    “ Cleaners! Why should I? ” Lynette caught her up, glaring at her with quite unconcealed dislike, while Muffin ’ s owner grabbed him by the collar and administered a lecture. “ This is a new suit—a new suit! ”
    She felt that the thing that would relieve her feelings most of all would be if she could allow herself to burst into tears, for not only was the suit a new one, but it was as yet unpaid for. It was a model, like most of her clothes, and its price was more than she could even bear to think about at the present time, with a host of other debts hanging like a number of millstones around her slender neck. Oh, why had she been so unwise as to wear it today?
    She sat down again at the table because she could feel Sir John studying her with a kind of faint amusement in his strange gray eyes, and she knew that she had to be careful. But inwardly she was fuming because some spiteful whim of fate had allowed that absurd dog of Sir John ’ s to accompany them today, and that inefficient and unpleasant attendant to his child to feed it tidbits. Tidbits...! She found it impossible to prevent herself looking all her dislike at Lucy, whose neat and by no means unattractive appearance infuriated her just as a red flag infuriates a bull. Her mother might put forward pleas that she was quite a nice girl, and insist that there was no danger of Sir John ’ s liking her because he could never possibly look at any other woman while Lynette was within his orbit, but there was such a thing as a girl like that entertaining ideas of her own
    And, in any case, she was too young to be in charge of Miranda. It would be much better if someone older, and therefore, of course, more experienced, took charge of Miranda, and she really would have to try her best to convince Sir Joh n ... She had already tried once, but he had not been particularly receptive to her talk of her feminine intuition that she insisted could never be false. And in some ways he was a difficult man to convince of anything—even the extent of his own future happiness once she shared it with him!
    He had come into her life when she was dancing in Swan Lake in the provinces, and her success