Welsh Journals

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I can't see you clearly," he said gruffly. Liza Thompson," she said, emphasizing the surname, attempting to prod his memory. Thompson the auctioneer, you knew him well in the old days. Dead these five years, she added in a tone of formal regret. He remembered her now, remembered her as a fair-haired girl from Anglesey, who had married Dai Thompson in a hurry to avoid scandal. Her short lithe figure stood arrested at twenty-five in his remembrance of her, unstimulated with the idea of growth. Do you still live about here, Liza," he said, groping for conversa- tion.- He found it difficult to pronounce her name. Well, Goronwy, there's forgetful," she said, tapping his wrist reproachfully. I've been living in the next street since I saw you last." It was a mock reproach, and she let her hand remain inside his, working his fingers apart playfully. Sorry." She would be about forty now, he calculated, wise and friendly, with a discreet tongue. She had probably been going for her nightly Guinness when they collided. His manner had been far too stiff so far. You never married-after ? No. It's usually the woman who lives on, isn't it ? Always, thought Mr. Jenkins, if not in the flesh. It is always the woman who survives. So you're all on your own now, Liza ? Yes, bach, Johnny's quite a man now, working away in Wrexham." Bad place, I'm told." "There, you're old-fashioned, G'ronwy." The pressure on his fingers grew tighter. I It was an unhappy remark. He knew that what was in both their minds was not subject to fashion like the window of a high-class tailor. He might have been prepared to drown with her in the mutual denial of the exact commandment which her tone and touch offered, but he could never have shared the easy negligence she substituted. He fumbled a cigarette from his pocket as an excuse for disengaging his hand. "Perhaps I am," he said, hardening. Try and get me to believe it." Like a bridge player thinking two moves ahead, she failed to notice her mistake and rushed on to the pre-selected question. Isn't it late for you to be here ?