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| "Now don't be huffy and on your dignity," the young man said. "What would you have done?" continued on page 25 |
It wasn’t exactly a golden coach, but it led to a prince charming.
A Cinderella Called Dinah
by ANGELA RUSSELL
by ANGELA RUSSELL
ILLUSTRATED BY BATCHELOR
DINAH stood back and looked at the spray of flowers she had been arranging for a wedding.
"That's very good indeed." Dinah looked round to see her employer, Mrs. Troy. Mrs. Troy went on. "Dinah, isn't it time for your driving lesson?"
Dinah heaved a mental sigh and glanced at her watch. "Yes, I suppose it is," she said unenthusiastically.
It was, she knew, extremely kind of her employer to be paying for her to have driving lessons and it was a compliment, too, because once she could drive the shop van, Dinah would be sent off on her own to do the flower decorations, instead of just helping Mrs. Troy.
It wasn't that Dinah didn't want to learn to drive, only she did dislike her instructor so much.
It wasn't his fault, she supposed, that Mr. Hollybun was so unattractive, and probably he couldn't help that awful cough, either, but it was the impression wordless disapproval and dislike he gave that was so unconducive to self-confidence.
The Cresswell School of Motoring was attached to the Cresswell Garage, and as Dinah crossed the road, she looked round for the grey car that should be waiting for her with Mr. Hollybun beside it. Her eye caught the familiar shaped bonnet, standing by the petrol pumps, and she hurried over and got into the driving seat.
Then the door of the car opened and a dark, rather sun-burned young man with very blue eyes and a cheerful smile, said: "Good afternoon."
"Oh-good afternoon," said Dinah, momentarily taken back."Isn't Mr. Hollybun taking my lesson this afternoon? I mean are you giving it to me instead? "
"If that's all right by you," said the young man. "Mr. Hollybun seems to be unavoidably detained, I don't quite know why."
Dinah didn't really mind what had detained Mr. Hollybun as long as he wasn't there. She switched on the engine and put the car in gear.
The young man turned out to be the most helpful and sympathetic driving instructor.
Several times she managed to make hand signals in quite a nonchalant way. And she gave him a very amusing description of her job without bumping into anything.
"Would you like to pull up on the side here for a minute?" her instructor said after a while.
Dinah pulled up with relief.
"You've been awfully helpful," she said, "I don't want to be nasty about Mr. Hollybun but he, well, he isn't very encouraging somehow and I do feel I've got on much faster with you. I wondered if you could give me my lessons from now on."
FOR a moment the young man was silent. "You'll have to know sooner or later," he said, with a grin. "Listen, I'd love to go on giving you driving lessons, but at the moment I'm not really part of the outfit."
"But?" Dinah stared at him.
"Now don't be huffy and on your dignity, what would you have done? I stop at a garage and find a most attractive young woman sitting in my driving seat, expecting to be given a driving lesson. Think how embarrassing for you if I'd said: 'I'm afraid you've made a mistake; madam.' And what a wasted opportunity for me. And I have given you a perfectly adequate driving lesson."
It was all perfectly true, he had given her an excellent driving lesson and it had been entirely her fault, and if he had politely explained that she'd got into the wrong car, she would have flet hot all over.
Thinking of Mr. Hollybun waiting and waiting for her and looking crosser and crosser, Dinah began quite heartlessly to laugh.
"Well, there it is," said the young man. "The only loser is Mr. Hollybun and I think he sounds a bit dreary."
" Oh, he is," said Dinah.
"Well in that case, I shan't waste an ounce of pity on him because I've stolen you," the young man said, firmly: "And now look, shall we go and have some tea before I take you back? I promise you I'm very respectable. I'm home on leave from the colonial service and I'm staying with my aunt, who's a pillar of the church and the Mother's Union, and my name's Tony Bradshaw."
Dinah should, she knew, have extended a firm but polite refusal to Mr. Bradshaw. Instead she had said : "I needn't be back till quarter past five. I'd love to."
Her mood, however, changed rapidly when she got back to the shop discovered that she had to do Mrs. d'Eresby's flowers the next day.
"Oh, no !" she said to Mrs. Troy.
"You always do her I can't and anyway I thought she wanted them on Friday."
"Her house party for the Hospital Ball arrives tomorrow, she's just telephoned me, so she want's her order done tomorrow morning. I told her I was engaged so she's sending a car for you at eleven."
Mrs. d'Eresby was the acknowledged leader of Arlington's social and charitable world. She sat on every council and committee; she gave the sort of parties to which everyone wanted to be invited. And for all her social activities, she relied on Troys not only for her flowers, but for the arrangement of them.
She invariably expected Mrs. Troy's individual attention. No wonder Dinah was apprehensive.
By eleven o'clock the next morning, Dinah, her flowers for Mrs. d'Eresby all ready, was waiting to be fetched, with young Clare pottering about the shop making her nervous by saying: "Gosh, I'm glad I'm not you, gosh, she's a holy terror."
Dinah had just gone to fetch some more wire, when she heard a voice that made her heart turn over, say: "Is Miss Hewart ready? I've come to fetch her to do my aunt's flowers."
It was Tony Bradshaw.
So Dinah found herself once more in the passenger seat of the little grey car, but it wasn't the same any more. His respectable aunt was the famous, fabulous Mrs. d'Eresby, and Tony wasn't the sort of person who'd take a girl to the pictures on Saturday night. He was part of that smart social world whose doings were portrayed in glossy magazines. And even though Tony's cheerful voice might have fooled her for a minute, there, on the steps of the d'Eresby house when they arrived, was proof that Tony belonged to a completely different world.
THE proof was tall and slim and beautifully dressed. As she dashed down the steps, she cried: "Tony darling, do hurry up, Sandra and Caro and Johnnie are all stuck somewhere, and we're to go and fetch them now because otherwise we shall be late for lunch. So do buck up."
" Trust Johnnie," said Tony "All right, Lois, I'm almost with .you. I'll just park the floral tributes first. Where d'you want them all?"
Lois' was glancing at the flowers. "Lovely, aren't they?" she said, casually. "Oh, here's Mrs. d'Eresby, she'll know what to do with them. Come on, Tony.
"Mrs. d’Eresby, formidable but dignified, bore down upon Dinah.
"Ah here you are. Mrs. Troy tells me you can do flowers very well, so I'm expecting great things. All right, Tony, put them down there, and now, Miss Hewart, I'll show you what I want."
Dinah flung herself into her work, trying to forget about Tony and trying to work quickly so that she could leave before they came back.
But just as she was finishing they came bursting into the hall, Lois and the other two girls, one blonde and small and lively, one raven haired with a husky, drawling voice and Tony and the young man called Johnnie following behind them.
"Goodness, still at it? "Tony said, coming up to Dinah. "That's lovely."
Dinah, wishing that he would ignore her altogether, said: "I'm glad you think it's all right. It's my last vase. I've finished now."
"I'll run you back then," Tony said and Dinah was just saying no please don't, she could get the bus, when Mrs. d'Eresby appeared, greeted her new guests and then came over to Dinah.
"You're a good girl," she said. "Mrs. Troy was quite right, you do flowers very well indeed, You can tell her that I’m very pleased. Now Tony, take Miss Hewart back."
Tony winked atDinah."There you are," he murmured. "Orders, and if you dare disobey them I certainly don't."
ONCE inside the car, Tony said: "Are you coming to the dance tomorrow? "
"I'll be there on duty," Dinah told him. How lucky, how infinitely lucky that it was like that, he wouldn't feel he'd got to ask her for a dance, just to be polite.
"How on duty?" Tony asked.
Dinah explained that Troys not only did the flowers at the Town Hall tomorrow night;but also ran a stall selling button-holes and sprays, the profits of which went to the local hospital.
She refrained from telling him that the stall closed down when the last arrivals had come and that she and Mrs. Troy were then free to enjoy their complimentary tickets for the rest of the evening.
Tony said: "can I order a special spray, different from the ones you'll be selling on the stall and can I have it earlier? " "Of , course." Dinah told him. "What sort of spray did you want?"
It didn't make any difference, Tony wanting a spray for one of those girls. Not now. Why mind how special one of them was to him? .
"I don't know," Tony said, drawing up in front of the shop. "Shall I come in and then you can make suggestions.'
The ordering of Tony's spray took about a quarter of an hour and"by the end of it, Clare and Mrs. Troy were also involved. Tony didn't want orchids, because they were to ostentatious and wouldn't suit the wearer, he didn't know what colour the recipient's dress would be, he thought carnations were rather dull, he thought gardenias might be all right, but couldn't one have something quite different.
They all racked theirs brains until eventually Tony said: "Look, suppose you’d got:to produce a spray for the Queen to wear and you had no idea what colour her dress was going to be, only you knew, it must be different from anybody else's flowers, well, you wouldn't be defeated, would you? You wouldn't tell the Lord Chamberlain you couldn't do it?"
"Yes, I would," said Mrs. Troy, firmly, but at the same moment Dinah flashed out: “Of course not, just leave it to me.”
“Ah !” Tony heaved a sigh of relief, "I knew you could do it and you'll be sure to send it up with Aunt Moyra's things?"
"I will," promised Dinah, with a grim smile.
When Tony had gone, Mrs. Troy said: "My good girl, what have you let yourself in for? You aren't thinking of being funny and producing a corsage of carrots and broccoli or something, are you?" Dinah smiled. "Well, that's quite an idea," she said Frankly, I haven’t a clue what to do, but I wasn't going to admit that to him. I'll go to the market early tomorrow morning if I may, and perhaps I’ll be inspired. "
Dinah had been seized by an, illogical determination that the spray should be something exquisite and quite out of this world. One would have expected her to feel quite the reverse, but
queerly it was not for Lois or Sandra that she was doing it, not even for Tony, but for her own satisfaction.
It was to be a kind of swan song for the last two days, a fitting ending for tile crazy falling in love for "the first (and, she was convinced,the last) time and when the dance was over and the spray was a sad, dead, relic of faded petals and florist's wire, this romance would be dead too.
THE making of the spray took Dinah a long time. It was made up of flowers no one would have normally dreamed of using, tiny delphinium buds and yellow marigolds and fat, pink-tipped daises, sweet peas and sweet williams and baby roses. It could match any colour, and Dinah was quite pleased with it.
Luckily, there was too much to do that day to have
time to think. Dinah and Mrs. Troy were at the Town-Hall all afternoon and they were making all the sprays and buttonholes at the shop until seven.
"Well, that's the lot!" Mrs. Troy sighed at last. "Clare, will you take the flowers for Mrs. d'Eresby and her party up to the New House right away? We'll get these others into the van ready for the Town Hall and then I'll run you home, Dinah. I've got to fetch Mrs. Dunning to sit with mother for the evening, but I'll be back to collect you as quickly as I can."
She was back even quicker than Dinah had expected. She ran downstairs, fastening the belt of her black velvet frock as she went to let her in.
"My dear!" Dinah could see from Mrs. Troy's face that something was wrong.
"Mrs. Dunning's husband's ill, she says she tried to let me know, but couldn't. She can't leave her husband and I can't leave my mother. Mrs. Dunning's got her neighbour to come in for an hour or so, just to give me time to get you and the flowers off to the Town Hall and to get the stall arranged, but after that you'll simply have to manage on your own, Dinah. I'm frightfully sorry, but there it is."
"Can't I sit with your mother instead?" Dinah offered, leaping at the chance not to see Tony in evening clothes, not to know which of those girls was wearing the spray she had prepared, not to have one's heart all churned up by the sound of the dance music and the knowledge of someone else in Tony's arms.
But, as Dinah had feared, Mrs. Troy wouldn't hear of it.
"My dear child, I'm fifty-two and missing one dance makes precious little difference to me. In fact, I shall be only too glad to have an early night. No, it's no good saying any more about it. Nothing would induce me to let you sit with my mother."
THE stall was in the big, pillared entrance of the Town Hall. Harry, the porter helped them to carry in the trays of flowers and shortly the big trestle table was banked with carnations and orchids, fragrant gardenias and roses.
Mrs. Troy looked at her watch. "I must go," she said. "Now don't let anyone else have the mayoress's orchids, and drop the prices at ten thirty and pack up shop at eleven fifteen and go and enjoy yourself. Have a lovely time!" .
But two minutes later, Mrs. Troy was back. "My dear, the van won't start, and I haven't got time to crank it. Look, you can drive quite well enough to get it back to the garage tonight. There won't be anyone about. I'll go back in a taxi. That'll be all right, won't it?"
She looked so harassed that Dinah could only say:'" Of course I can manage. I'll get it back quite safely."
BEING responsible for the van regaining the safety of its garage without damage was a terrifying thought, but Dinah had no time to dwell on it for almost immediately, people began to arrive, organizers, ticket collectors, programme sellers and at last the first party of visitors.
"Yes, the carnations are lovely, aren't they? Half a crown please, Doctor Furness yes, I know but it is for the hospital, what about gardenias, Mrs. Archer why of course, the roses if you would rather, yes, they look perfect on your dress" Dinah was so busy that she didn't notice Tony's arrival.
"Where's my spray? You promised to send it up to the house."
Dinah swung round and there was Tony, an accusing look on his face.
"But I did. Clare, the other assistant, took it up in a taxi with your aunt's order, I saw her go."
"Well, it didn't arrive. Are you sure it's not here?" He was looking over the stall. "Aunt Moyra's spray turned up and the buttonholes, but nothing else."
Dinah felt quite sick. "I know it's not here and I know it wasn't left in the shop, because I looked round to make sure after Clare had gone. Could she have left it in the taxi?"
Tony shook his head. "I thought of that, I rang the garage and the man went to make sure, but there was nothing there."
Dinah couldn't say anything for a moment. Then: "I simply can't think what's happened," she said, miserably.
"Of course I'll ask Clare tomorrow, but I know it'll be too late by then. I don't think this has ever happened before to an order, and I don't know what to say, except that I'm terribly sorry and that I did realize how important it was."
Before Tony could answer, they were there, those girls in their beautiful dresses.
"Tony darling, we thought we'd lost you? Are you buying us flowers? Orchids for me, please, Tony."
When they had all got the flowers they wanted and Johnnie and two more young men had joined them they bore Tony off, up the broad marble steps to the ballroom.
As he went, Tony said over his shoulder to Dinah: "I'll see you later."
AFTERWARDS Dinah never liked thinking about the next hour very much. The loss of the spray seemed, some now, this last straw. Although it wasn't her fault really, it seemed as though she had muddled and spoiled everything.
Her one longing was to shut down the stall and get away before Tony came back.
At eleven, having done no trade for some time, Dinah began to pack up. Harry came to help her.
"I'll put them in the van, miss," he said, picking up the pile of empty trays. "You go off and have a good time."
"I can't stay, I've got to get home early," Dinah said firmly. "But if you could carry them out for me I'd be very grateful."
She'd meant to ask Harry to wait and see if the van needed cranking, for now the prospect of her lone and illegal drive was weighing very heavily upon her, but someone called him and he was gone before she could try the self-starter.
Of course it didn't work. Dinah sighed and pushed the self-starter again, and this time it barely grunted.
She got out of the car and went back to find Harry.
Someone was talking to Harry, someone with very familiar dark hair. He was saying: "But when did she go? I thought she," and then he turned and saw her before she could escape.
"Oh, there· you are, I was just asking Harry where you'd got to. Come on and dance."
"I can’t"Dinah said, desperately. "I've got to get home to, to, because I've got to;" she ended, lamely.
"I was just going to ask Harry if he could swing the van for me, because it won't start."
"I'll see to it," Tony said, taking her arm and going out through the door with her. And then: "I didn't want to let you down in front of Harry, but are you proposing to drive the van yourself? You must have taken and passed your test very quickly indeed."
He was laughing at her now. Dinah bit her lip and explained about Mrs. Troy.
"I'm shocked," said Tony. "You were proposing to break the law in the most shameless way. If you've really got to get back I'll take you and don't argue. Where's the starting handle?"
"In there somewhere," Dinah said humbly and they both began to look under the seats and behind the trays in the back.
It was Dinah who found it, wedged between the tool bag and the back of the driving seat.
"Tony! " she cried, quite oblivious of what she was calling him in her excitement, "I've found it, no, no, not the starting-handle, your spray. Clare must have put it in the van by mistake and it fell down behind the trays. Look, it isn't too late even now, you can still give it to her and explain about the mistake. I'm sure she’ll understand if you tell her what happened."
"Let me see it," said Tony.
They opened the box, standing under the street lamp, and the pale yellow beam fell on to the cluster of flowers still as fresh as when Dinah had first laid them on their damp tissue paper.
"I knew you could do it," Tony said. "It's perfect."
Dinah blushed and then said quickly: "Take it to her now,
they're still all right, she won't mind if you explain."
"Won't she?" Tony asked, looking down at Dinah in the most extraordinary way. And then he said quietly: "Who did you think they were for, Dinah?"
"Why, one of those, one of your party, Lois or Sandra or . . ."
Her voice tailed away, because Tony was taking the spray out of the box and starting to pin it on to her shoulder.
"You are an idiot," he said. "It was for you, that's why I minded so much when it wasn't there. Darling Dinah, you can't go home before your spray has seen the ballroom. Please come and dance with me."
IT was three in the morning before the little van, with" Troy Flowers" painted on its side, went slowly and safely home through the deserted streets.
And although Dinah was sitting in the passenger seat, it was still just as well that they passed no policeman, for Tony was driving with only one hand. ........ the end
"You always do her I can't and anyway I thought she wanted them on Friday."
"Her house party for the Hospital Ball arrives tomorrow, she's just telephoned me, so she want's her order done tomorrow morning. I told her I was engaged so she's sending a car for you at eleven."
Mrs. d'Eresby was the acknowledged leader of Arlington's social and charitable world. She sat on every council and committee; she gave the sort of parties to which everyone wanted to be invited. And for all her social activities, she relied on Troys not only for her flowers, but for the arrangement of them.
She invariably expected Mrs. Troy's individual attention. No wonder Dinah was apprehensive.
By eleven o'clock the next morning, Dinah, her flowers for Mrs. d'Eresby all ready, was waiting to be fetched, with young Clare pottering about the shop making her nervous by saying: "Gosh, I'm glad I'm not you, gosh, she's a holy terror."
Dinah had just gone to fetch some more wire, when she heard a voice that made her heart turn over, say: "Is Miss Hewart ready? I've come to fetch her to do my aunt's flowers."
It was Tony Bradshaw.
So Dinah found herself once more in the passenger seat of the little grey car, but it wasn't the same any more. His respectable aunt was the famous, fabulous Mrs. d'Eresby, and Tony wasn't the sort of person who'd take a girl to the pictures on Saturday night. He was part of that smart social world whose doings were portrayed in glossy magazines. And even though Tony's cheerful voice might have fooled her for a minute, there, on the steps of the d'Eresby house when they arrived, was proof that Tony belonged to a completely different world.
THE proof was tall and slim and beautifully dressed. As she dashed down the steps, she cried: "Tony darling, do hurry up, Sandra and Caro and Johnnie are all stuck somewhere, and we're to go and fetch them now because otherwise we shall be late for lunch. So do buck up."
" Trust Johnnie," said Tony "All right, Lois, I'm almost with .you. I'll just park the floral tributes first. Where d'you want them all?"
Lois' was glancing at the flowers. "Lovely, aren't they?" she said, casually. "Oh, here's Mrs. d'Eresby, she'll know what to do with them. Come on, Tony.
"Mrs. d’Eresby, formidable but dignified, bore down upon Dinah.
"Ah here you are. Mrs. Troy tells me you can do flowers very well, so I'm expecting great things. All right, Tony, put them down there, and now, Miss Hewart, I'll show you what I want."
Dinah flung herself into her work, trying to forget about Tony and trying to work quickly so that she could leave before they came back.
But just as she was finishing they came bursting into the hall, Lois and the other two girls, one blonde and small and lively, one raven haired with a husky, drawling voice and Tony and the young man called Johnnie following behind them.
"Goodness, still at it? "Tony said, coming up to Dinah. "That's lovely."
Dinah, wishing that he would ignore her altogether, said: "I'm glad you think it's all right. It's my last vase. I've finished now."
"I'll run you back then," Tony said and Dinah was just saying no please don't, she could get the bus, when Mrs. d'Eresby appeared, greeted her new guests and then came over to Dinah.
"You're a good girl," she said. "Mrs. Troy was quite right, you do flowers very well indeed, You can tell her that I’m very pleased. Now Tony, take Miss Hewart back."
Tony winked atDinah."There you are," he murmured. "Orders, and if you dare disobey them I certainly don't."
ONCE inside the car, Tony said: "Are you coming to the dance tomorrow? "
"I'll be there on duty," Dinah told him. How lucky, how infinitely lucky that it was like that, he wouldn't feel he'd got to ask her for a dance, just to be polite.
"How on duty?" Tony asked.
Dinah explained that Troys not only did the flowers at the Town Hall tomorrow night;but also ran a stall selling button-holes and sprays, the profits of which went to the local hospital.
She refrained from telling him that the stall closed down when the last arrivals had come and that she and Mrs. Troy were then free to enjoy their complimentary tickets for the rest of the evening.
Tony said: "can I order a special spray, different from the ones you'll be selling on the stall and can I have it earlier? " "Of , course." Dinah told him. "What sort of spray did you want?"
It didn't make any difference, Tony wanting a spray for one of those girls. Not now. Why mind how special one of them was to him? .
"I don't know," Tony said, drawing up in front of the shop. "Shall I come in and then you can make suggestions.'
The ordering of Tony's spray took about a quarter of an hour and"by the end of it, Clare and Mrs. Troy were also involved. Tony didn't want orchids, because they were to ostentatious and wouldn't suit the wearer, he didn't know what colour the recipient's dress would be, he thought carnations were rather dull, he thought gardenias might be all right, but couldn't one have something quite different.
They all racked theirs brains until eventually Tony said: "Look, suppose you’d got:to produce a spray for the Queen to wear and you had no idea what colour her dress was going to be, only you knew, it must be different from anybody else's flowers, well, you wouldn't be defeated, would you? You wouldn't tell the Lord Chamberlain you couldn't do it?"
"Yes, I would," said Mrs. Troy, firmly, but at the same moment Dinah flashed out: “Of course not, just leave it to me.”
“Ah !” Tony heaved a sigh of relief, "I knew you could do it and you'll be sure to send it up with Aunt Moyra's things?"
"I will," promised Dinah, with a grim smile.
When Tony had gone, Mrs. Troy said: "My good girl, what have you let yourself in for? You aren't thinking of being funny and producing a corsage of carrots and broccoli or something, are you?" Dinah smiled. "Well, that's quite an idea," she said Frankly, I haven’t a clue what to do, but I wasn't going to admit that to him. I'll go to the market early tomorrow morning if I may, and perhaps I’ll be inspired. "
Dinah had been seized by an, illogical determination that the spray should be something exquisite and quite out of this world. One would have expected her to feel quite the reverse, but
queerly it was not for Lois or Sandra that she was doing it, not even for Tony, but for her own satisfaction.
It was to be a kind of swan song for the last two days, a fitting ending for tile crazy falling in love for "the first (and, she was convinced,the last) time and when the dance was over and the spray was a sad, dead, relic of faded petals and florist's wire, this romance would be dead too.
THE making of the spray took Dinah a long time. It was made up of flowers no one would have normally dreamed of using, tiny delphinium buds and yellow marigolds and fat, pink-tipped daises, sweet peas and sweet williams and baby roses. It could match any colour, and Dinah was quite pleased with it.
Luckily, there was too much to do that day to have
time to think. Dinah and Mrs. Troy were at the Town-Hall all afternoon and they were making all the sprays and buttonholes at the shop until seven.
"Well, that's the lot!" Mrs. Troy sighed at last. "Clare, will you take the flowers for Mrs. d'Eresby and her party up to the New House right away? We'll get these others into the van ready for the Town Hall and then I'll run you home, Dinah. I've got to fetch Mrs. Dunning to sit with mother for the evening, but I'll be back to collect you as quickly as I can."
She was back even quicker than Dinah had expected. She ran downstairs, fastening the belt of her black velvet frock as she went to let her in.
"My dear!" Dinah could see from Mrs. Troy's face that something was wrong.
"Mrs. Dunning's husband's ill, she says she tried to let me know, but couldn't. She can't leave her husband and I can't leave my mother. Mrs. Dunning's got her neighbour to come in for an hour or so, just to give me time to get you and the flowers off to the Town Hall and to get the stall arranged, but after that you'll simply have to manage on your own, Dinah. I'm frightfully sorry, but there it is."
"Can't I sit with your mother instead?" Dinah offered, leaping at the chance not to see Tony in evening clothes, not to know which of those girls was wearing the spray she had prepared, not to have one's heart all churned up by the sound of the dance music and the knowledge of someone else in Tony's arms.
But, as Dinah had feared, Mrs. Troy wouldn't hear of it.
"My dear child, I'm fifty-two and missing one dance makes precious little difference to me. In fact, I shall be only too glad to have an early night. No, it's no good saying any more about it. Nothing would induce me to let you sit with my mother."
THE stall was in the big, pillared entrance of the Town Hall. Harry, the porter helped them to carry in the trays of flowers and shortly the big trestle table was banked with carnations and orchids, fragrant gardenias and roses.
Mrs. Troy looked at her watch. "I must go," she said. "Now don't let anyone else have the mayoress's orchids, and drop the prices at ten thirty and pack up shop at eleven fifteen and go and enjoy yourself. Have a lovely time!" .
But two minutes later, Mrs. Troy was back. "My dear, the van won't start, and I haven't got time to crank it. Look, you can drive quite well enough to get it back to the garage tonight. There won't be anyone about. I'll go back in a taxi. That'll be all right, won't it?"
She looked so harassed that Dinah could only say:'" Of course I can manage. I'll get it back quite safely."
BEING responsible for the van regaining the safety of its garage without damage was a terrifying thought, but Dinah had no time to dwell on it for almost immediately, people began to arrive, organizers, ticket collectors, programme sellers and at last the first party of visitors.
"Yes, the carnations are lovely, aren't they? Half a crown please, Doctor Furness yes, I know but it is for the hospital, what about gardenias, Mrs. Archer why of course, the roses if you would rather, yes, they look perfect on your dress" Dinah was so busy that she didn't notice Tony's arrival.
"Where's my spray? You promised to send it up to the house."
Dinah swung round and there was Tony, an accusing look on his face.
"But I did. Clare, the other assistant, took it up in a taxi with your aunt's order, I saw her go."
"Well, it didn't arrive. Are you sure it's not here?" He was looking over the stall. "Aunt Moyra's spray turned up and the buttonholes, but nothing else."
Dinah felt quite sick. "I know it's not here and I know it wasn't left in the shop, because I looked round to make sure after Clare had gone. Could she have left it in the taxi?"
Tony shook his head. "I thought of that, I rang the garage and the man went to make sure, but there was nothing there."
Dinah couldn't say anything for a moment. Then: "I simply can't think what's happened," she said, miserably.
"Of course I'll ask Clare tomorrow, but I know it'll be too late by then. I don't think this has ever happened before to an order, and I don't know what to say, except that I'm terribly sorry and that I did realize how important it was."
Before Tony could answer, they were there, those girls in their beautiful dresses.
"Tony darling, we thought we'd lost you? Are you buying us flowers? Orchids for me, please, Tony."
When they had all got the flowers they wanted and Johnnie and two more young men had joined them they bore Tony off, up the broad marble steps to the ballroom.
As he went, Tony said over his shoulder to Dinah: "I'll see you later."
AFTERWARDS Dinah never liked thinking about the next hour very much. The loss of the spray seemed, some now, this last straw. Although it wasn't her fault really, it seemed as though she had muddled and spoiled everything.
Her one longing was to shut down the stall and get away before Tony came back.
At eleven, having done no trade for some time, Dinah began to pack up. Harry came to help her.
"I'll put them in the van, miss," he said, picking up the pile of empty trays. "You go off and have a good time."
"I can't stay, I've got to get home early," Dinah said firmly. "But if you could carry them out for me I'd be very grateful."
She'd meant to ask Harry to wait and see if the van needed cranking, for now the prospect of her lone and illegal drive was weighing very heavily upon her, but someone called him and he was gone before she could try the self-starter.
Of course it didn't work. Dinah sighed and pushed the self-starter again, and this time it barely grunted.
She got out of the car and went back to find Harry.
Someone was talking to Harry, someone with very familiar dark hair. He was saying: "But when did she go? I thought she," and then he turned and saw her before she could escape.
"Oh, there· you are, I was just asking Harry where you'd got to. Come on and dance."
"I can’t"Dinah said, desperately. "I've got to get home to, to, because I've got to;" she ended, lamely.
"I was just going to ask Harry if he could swing the van for me, because it won't start."
"I'll see to it," Tony said, taking her arm and going out through the door with her. And then: "I didn't want to let you down in front of Harry, but are you proposing to drive the van yourself? You must have taken and passed your test very quickly indeed."
He was laughing at her now. Dinah bit her lip and explained about Mrs. Troy.
"I'm shocked," said Tony. "You were proposing to break the law in the most shameless way. If you've really got to get back I'll take you and don't argue. Where's the starting handle?"
"In there somewhere," Dinah said humbly and they both began to look under the seats and behind the trays in the back.
It was Dinah who found it, wedged between the tool bag and the back of the driving seat.
"Tony! " she cried, quite oblivious of what she was calling him in her excitement, "I've found it, no, no, not the starting-handle, your spray. Clare must have put it in the van by mistake and it fell down behind the trays. Look, it isn't too late even now, you can still give it to her and explain about the mistake. I'm sure she’ll understand if you tell her what happened."
"Let me see it," said Tony.
They opened the box, standing under the street lamp, and the pale yellow beam fell on to the cluster of flowers still as fresh as when Dinah had first laid them on their damp tissue paper.
"I knew you could do it," Tony said. "It's perfect."
Dinah blushed and then said quickly: "Take it to her now,
they're still all right, she won't mind if you explain."
"Won't she?" Tony asked, looking down at Dinah in the most extraordinary way. And then he said quietly: "Who did you think they were for, Dinah?"
"Why, one of those, one of your party, Lois or Sandra or . . ."
Her voice tailed away, because Tony was taking the spray out of the box and starting to pin it on to her shoulder.
"You are an idiot," he said. "It was for you, that's why I minded so much when it wasn't there. Darling Dinah, you can't go home before your spray has seen the ballroom. Please come and dance with me."
IT was three in the morning before the little van, with" Troy Flowers" painted on its side, went slowly and safely home through the deserted streets.
And although Dinah was sitting in the passenger seat, it was still just as well that they passed no policeman, for Tony was driving with only one hand. ........ the end
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