Children of no Man's Land by G.B. Stern

I

The girl who was playing the accompaniments to La llorraine's singing glanced aside once or twice from Deb to Jenny, contrasting mystery and mobility. Jenny attracted her the most; she made up her mind to speak to Jenny directly the song was over. And then she saw Jenny bite her lip, clutch tightly at the arm of the chair. after a minute or two of apparent bodily agony, rise and grope an unsteady way through the edges and corners of furniture, to the door. Antonia Verity went on with the Aria from "Samson et Delilah. " She had seen a swift look interchanged between Deb and Jenny, just before the spasm of pain which drove the latter from the room. Also, in the instant's silence before the prima-donna had begun to let herself go in "Mon cœur s'ouvre a ta voix," Antonia fancied she had detected a scraping sound and heavy breathing outside the door.

Stella had also remarked Jenny's symptoms, and half rose to follow her out without interrupting the singing; but Deb murmured: "All right, Auntie, I'll go". and slipped noiselessly in Jenny's wake. Dolph was wrapt up in Manon, who was wrapt up in her own indifference to Dolph. And La llorraine was back in the Paris opera-house, eyes uplifted to the imaginary tiers of packed faces, voice soaring resonantly to a non-existent acoustic. Antonia wondered if the drum of her left ear were being shattered; she also wondered a little what was afoot outside the door.

II

"Did you hear me sleuthing? " queried Ames, contentedly lopping the haddock to fit Cora's limitations.

"Is _that_ what you were doing? Of course we heard. " The three had been recently present at a cinema film which portrayed a quantity of flickering doors, set in a flickering corridor, down which a flickering procession of waiters, detectives and gentlemen burglars-all impartially in evening dress-portrayed the diverting art of sleuthing: they skulked along close to the wall, one arm shielding their eyes to avoid observation, and at every bedroom door they bent and applied an ear to the keyhole-then started erect, confirmed in their worst suspicion, and went to the next keyhole.

"I sleuthed all over the house, till I sleuthed outside Miss Lamb's door -- " he stopped abruptly.

"And then?"

"Then I stopped sleuthing. It's an ignoble pastime. Get me my screw-driver; something's wrong with Cora. " A minute later he was completely happy, surrounded by Cora in eleven fragments; while Jenny, very excitable and talkative, enacted to him exactly how she had been "taken ill" during La llorraine's song.

"-There. Now she'll do."

"There was nothing wrong with Cora; you wanted an excuse to pull her to bits," Deb accused him.

"A man is only a child; he must play."

"Fiddling at things?"

"Tinkering with things. Pottering over things. That's a mercy! " as Dalila, on the other side of the wall, died to silence. "Our invalid had better be hoisted on to the bed; they'll be coming in to enquire."

Just in time Jenny hurled herself among the pillows, and drew the quilt up to her flushed cheeks. A knock at the door. The soldier eliminated himself against the wall. Deb went softly to the threshold: "Is that you, Manon? . Yes, she's in here. No, I wouldn't come in; she. " Deb backed the unseen visitor onto the landing. The other two, listening breathlessly, heard her low, capable, reassuring explanations: ". be all right presently. room too hot. strain of the last few weeks. might do her good. tell them not to worry."

Jenny inserted a moan of corroboration.

"I'm so vairry sorry -- " from Manon.

Deb returned to the room, closing the door. And Jenny cried:

"Little humbug! much she cares!"

"Well, nurse, shall we operate? " demanded Ames cheerily. He stood at the bedside, assuming a professional manner, one finger on the patient's pulse. "Um. Um. This is excellent. We shall soon be all right. Up to-day and down to-morrow and dead the next day. A great improvement here, nurse. I should give her. " he drew the pseudo-nurse aside to a little distance, dropping his voice to a grave undertone. Jenny burst out laughing at the foolery-then shuddered-and laughed again: