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i i t i i e fore May fapiean had askin; Melinda « when? her mother would arrive an tnquiry which later became significant, On ‘Thursday, May 24, the: day before his thisty-eighth eirthday, Donald told Melinda that a friend of his named Roger Styles—of whom she had a THE HOUSE AT TAT ’) Bonnet 3g was killed in the war, were spend the week-end with them, Tt was for this reason that Mac- jean had taken the Saturday morning off There was nothing to be done but to accept the un- wanted guest with good gr¢ abd the next morning Melin ppked Maclean a birthday ca! SFIELD * Beaconshaw, the house where the strange events occurred, Standing on the elder son of Donald not previously heard—would be coming down to dinner the next evening. Melinda was annoyed. Her baby was only three weeks ahead.. She was feeling wretched and in no’ condition to entertain, especially some- one she did nat know. Her small boys had measies, and even in orginary circam~ stances, with Snly one daily servant who webt home at tea~ time, Beaconshaw was not an easy house toa run, It was a “relic of the opulent pre-war days when servants were easy to get In agdition, Maclean's sister, Nancy’ and her American pasd.agd Mrs, Mary Maclean, brother who n = widow of an elder the lawn is Fergus, id Melinda Mactea Se far as can be discover pnaid Maclean not only spept the Friday—until the evenitg ~-in a normal manner, except possibly that his‘luncheon was ~ more elaborate and prolonged than usual, but his manner was entirely normal, He caught his usual trap, ¢ $.19 from Victoria to Oxtef, nd arcived home at the usua me-—usual, that is to say, f those evenings when he went, cansp. I'm not going ta, straight home from the ofntt’ Shan be back soon.” Before ais guest arrived he gaid io Melinda ; “ After Sinner Roger and I have to go ou! see someone on business. going to take a few thin, to 4% it to rm gs in se we have bight wend 2 prepared a special dinne| “| i} gone downstairs, he me See t unreasonably, Melinda Was extremely upset. She tol lewed him into his dress room, where he went to pac! ‘his pyjamas and shaving gear in a brief-case, and they argued. It was too bad that he had iavited an unknown friend for {a bdirthday dinner which she jihad »been foolishly hoping sper. alone with him. But. |t wap intolerable if he and gis triad were then going to leave her alone at hame for evening. t And he was not even sure; p that he would spend the night! at Beaconshaw. were arriving 1 ing. Did he realise there would be a great deal of work to be done which she conld not: manage alone 7 . WHY ? A child asks Putling up beds in the guest rooms ? Looking after the cen: | tral heating 7 household jobs? For they were his small share in helping to run the house, | Melinda begged him not to ] go. He said that he kad to. And Melinda stormed out of the tyqom and went downstairs. | ‘hen oevurred a pathetic Hitle incident which only came out two years Jater when) young Fergus told his. grand-| mother, : His father's and mother’s , voices raised im argument ' nad wakened the little boy, : who slept in an adjoining room, and after bis mother ha % ont of is bed and went in to see his daiher. “Why are you going away, pagay he asked Can tf stand at the window and watch you go?" They were the last words he spoke to his father tor at least two years and four months. Maclean replled, “You gt hack into your bed, you li tname. Maclean introduced him His relatives vt! ihe wext morn 7 AN the other ~ al THE GUEST~ So charming ‘This conversation fixed {teelf! imperishably on the seven- year-old boy’a memory — for, despite his promise, his tat did not * come back soon.” And then, half an hour late*, Guy Burgess arrived | at) Beaconshaw in « car he had, hired in the morning in his ows to Melinda Bs Roger Styles, She found him charming and easy to talk to. He seems to ave gone out of his way to be pleasant to her and she was definitely attracted by 4 So far as she could judge, and it must be remembercd that she never. met bim before, his ‘Mariner was per) fectly normal. There was certainly no obvious constraint He appeared neither worried nor i Neither he gr at eRse, aclean that evening gave the impression of a man on the brink of deserting his family, his friends, his country and his very way of life, probably for ever, There is one curious point. Going over the events of that never-to-be-forgetten evening, Melinda said afterwards that she had a vague feeling, based oa nothing she could remember or fix positively, that Donald and Burgess bad in fact travelled down from London together. Had they done so it is not easy to see why they pre- tended “io have ‘come ‘separately. It might be that after drop- sping Maclean—either at the Station, where he would have picked up his own car, or else near Beaconshaw—Burgess had driven off to see someone who lived near. Dinner was a normat meal, with three civilised people talk- ing casually and amicably with ne apparent signs of the menial xmoi) through which two of them must surely have been passing. There was certainly no hint thet evening amt eatastrophic storm Ww: was