Next Door to Romance by Margaret Malcolm Read Free Book Online Page A

complainingly but as one stating a fact.
    Her father had looked at her curiously.
    'Do you mind much that I didn't?'
    'Not particularly,' she admitted frankly. 'Girls' sports are silly, I think. They can never do as well as men can. But I won't like it if you don't come to the prizegiving at the end of the year. I'll be getting the senior maths prize then.'
    'You seem pretty sure of yourself,' Simon commented, amused.
    'I am,' Evadne said briefly. 'Well, that's all except that I kept a watch on them and after a time they sort of drifted away and I followed them to the kitchen garden. I hid behind a thick row of beans and I heard what I told you—that they're going to announce the merger the day after tomorrow. So I went back to the school, changed into decent clothes and caught the next train. And I'm quite certain neither of them knew I was listening, so you don't have to worry about that!'
    Simon nodded, picked up his telephone and gave a few concise instructions. Then he looked curiously at his daughter.
    'If this comes off, I'll make a lot of money,' he told her. 'But what do you get out of it? What shall I give you? You're almost old enough to wear jewellery. Pearls? Or a car of your own as soon as you're old enough to drive?'
    'You'd give me those anyway,' Evadne had said shrewdly. 'No, I want you to promise me something—'
    'Well?'
    'When I'm old enough, Father, I want to help you,' she explained earnestly. 'Oh, not actually in the office. That's a man's job. But you ought to entertain more than you do—and Mother's no good at all at that sort of thing. But I'll see to it I am. And then I think it would be useful for you to have a social contact that might pick up useful information. And that
is
a woman's job!'
    'Yes,' Simon said thoughtfully. 'I think you're right there. All right, Evadne. If you're of the same mind in a year or two's time, then it's a deal!'
    And with a formality that, between father and daughter, might have struck an onlooker as peculiar, they had gravely shaken hands.
    Three years later, Evadne, poised and polished by a final year at a French finishing school, had made her debut as her father's hostess—and Mrs Cosgrave, with a sigh of relief, sat back and relaxed. She was the first to agree that she wasn't any good at that sort of thing. Her Simon had always been so clever, but she'd never been able to keep up with him. Perhaps it was a pity, but there it was. One was made the way one was, and there didn't seem much that could be done about it.
    For five or six years the partnership between father and daughter was a complete success with Mark coming increasingly into the picture. The future seemed settled —and obvious.
    And then, quite suddenly, it seemed to Evadne, her father's whole outlook on life changed. In fact, what happened was the natural result of what had already been.
    Simon had always been proud of the fact that he'd started life a nobody and that he had become a wealthy man was due entirely to his own efforts. He'd liked people to envy him his luck because it gave him an opportunity of emphasizing that it wasn't anything of the sort. It was the result of downright hard work. He said it with relish because he'd enjoyed making money and pitting his brain against other men's.
    Then came the time when he felt that there was nothing novel in his day's work. He'd done it all so many times before. Now he wanted to see results. What would the money he'd amassed buy in the way of fresh interests—something he'd never had time to consider before? He gave a lot of thought to the matter and came to the conclusion that any enterprise he took up must have two qualities. It must be something completely new, and it must occupy his mind to the full.
    Not immediately did he decide to buy a country estate, but when he did, the idea fascinated him. Not only was there the question of running the place properly, but also that of adapting himself to country ways—of being accepted by other