“Rudi! What are you doing here? Do you want to buy a frock?”
“My dear Lisa—I had quite forgotten that this is your bailiwick too. Isn’t that a splendid word, ‘bailiwick.’ No, to tell you the truth—as you are my friend I hope you can keep a secret—I wish to speak a few words to Fay. Is she here? Oh, how unfortunate. Well, I shall wait until she returns. Perhaps I shall buy a frock after all—they are all so cheap at the moment it is a pity not to. Which do you recommend? This, now—would it suit me?”
“Rudi, you must go away, Miss Jacobs will have a fit if she catches me talking to you. Go away and come back in ten minutes or so.”
“Oh well, if you do not want me, I will say hello to Magda, where is she? Oh, I see, thank you. She will not want me either but I shall ignore that. Goodbye for the present.”
“Fay, Rudi is here looking for you. He’s with Magda.”
“Oh God—I’ll just go over there and see him—thanks.”
There was no mistaking the gleam of delight which had sprung into her eye. Gosh, thought Lisa. So.
“Fay, at last. As I could not telephone you I came all the way here in my lunch hour to see you and ask you if you will risk an outing with me on Friday night. Please say yes. We might go to a film and then have dinner, or whatever you would prefer. Say yes in principle, we can discuss the details over the telephone if you will ring me tonight, here is the number. Oh, I am glad. Tonight then, don’t forget!”
“Lesley, all right, Lisa, there’s someone called Michael Foldes rang you up here just half an hour ago, he says he’ll ring you again this evening. Oh, I see. Hmm. Well if he wants to take you out he has to pick you up here so I can meet him, even if he is a friend of Magda’s, I don’t know who he is, anyway how can he respect you if he doesn’t meet your parents first or me at least. Yes, well, he’ll just have to wait until Saturday night, he can wait that long if he really likes you, and so can you. I hope he isn’t too old for you. No, well that’s all right then. Shore School, did he? Well, that should be all right. He sounded very nice, very polite. He doesn’t sound Continental at all. Yes, well I suppose he is really an Australian then, if he grew up here. There’s the telephone now, you answer it, it might be him again.”
“Dave said I could spend fifty pounds, so I had a look at the cocktail frocks, you know we’ve got that reception coming up, but I couldn’t see anything I liked; I’ll see what they’ve got at Farmer’s or I might wait until the sales begin at Double Bay, I think there’s one at Jay’s next week. I got some things for the kids, did you? Yes, it’s worth it. Yes, I saw Patty just for a moment but she was that busy I didn’t really have time. Do you? Yes, but she’s always so pale, there isn’t that much difference. Well, what do you expect? He’s been gone nearly two weeks, it doesn’t look as if he’s in a hurry to come back. If he’s coming back. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s just shot through. Good thing too. No, well, she might miss him now, but she’ll get over it. It’s not as if she’s got kids to remind her. There’s no one to worry about except herself. She’s got time to start again if she’d just pull herself together and smarten herself up a bit.
“Well, she’s not a child for God’s sake, she’s old enough to look after herself, she’s older than me, I can’t be running around after her. Why doesn’t she go and stay with Mum? She can leave a note for him, it’s more than he bothered to do for her. If Dave did that to me I’d divorce him on the spot. All right, look, I’ll phone her tonight, I’ll find out what she wants to do at the weekend; she can come to the beach with us if she wants to, but she probably won’t. All right, I said I would, so I will, but I can’t see why you’re making such a fuss. She’s old enough to look after herself. Yes, all right. Ta-ta.”
Joy put the receiver down and examined her fingernails. That’s what I should have looked at, she thought. I knew I’d forget something. You can get some real bargains in cosmetics at the Goode’s sale. Oh well. Must get the kids bathed.
“Kids,” she called. “Inside now—bath time!”
Remind me to ring Patty after I’ve fed them, she told herself. Oh, gawd.