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DORIS LESSING
573
The word enjoy had come up again.
It was an enjoyable, very long meal, with good country food, a
lot of wine, and the sun pouring down into the walled place where,
Briony said, the most wonderful peaches were grown every summer.
Last month there had been hundreds of them. Along the wires that
sectioned the walls horizontally, the peach branches stretched their
now lightened branches, and a glass bowl of a rose-tinted concoction
was pushed towards Jody: the peaches themselves , preserved in
honey and wine.
It was nearly five when the meal ended. They were all tipsy
and full of well-being, evenJody. The four went back to the cottage,
leaving Connie with Jane. She had confided to her mother that she
still felt a bit funny, and Angela had told her she must telephone at
once if she felt any worse, when both parents would be at her bed–
side within five minutes .
A pity to waste what was left of the sunlight , not so dense and
yellow here in the large court, but kind enough, so they sat drinking
tea outside the kitchen windows. Swifts whirled and squealed about
the pale blue sky. The dog, stretched out in bliss on the warm
stones, flopped its tail about, when it remembered to. Bees were
hard at work even after the light drained away, leaving a quiet, in–
timate dusk. No one said much. Of course Angela and Henry were
tired , having woken so early . Once Jody made a remark that could
have led to the good talk which was, she had felt, the point of this
weekend , but neither Henry nor Angela took it up. She supposed
she agreed with them: such an evening was too rare a thing not to be
savoured minute by perfect minute.
"We aren't going to need much supper," announced Angela, as
they got up out of their chairs in the now dark court , lit patchily from
an upstairs window opposite .
"No," said Henry, "not much , but some . I'll make my potato
soup . It's quick and delicious." He went into the kitchen, and the
others were about to go into the sitting room when the telephone
rang, and Angela ran to it as if she had been waiting for it. Connie
announced that she felt worse. Angela called Henry who came out of
the kitchen, and the two went off to their daughter. Sebastian said he
was capable of making as good a soup as Henry was, and Sebastian
and J ody again took on the responsibilities of the kitchen . But J ody
sat herself down at the table and began to cry , making no attempt to
stop . She sat there, weeping, from an old, or at least well-established
well of grief, her large grey eyes wide open and the tears running,
