Then he pulled out his wallet from his hip pocket, opened with the deliberation of age, and studied a document.
'I seem to have forty pounds left on my letter of credit,' he said.
'Will that be enough?'
She said: 'I think so.
Aristide will want all the payment that you can make because he is a peasant, Monsieur, you understand.
But he wishes to help us, and he will not stop the venture for that reason.'
Howard said: 'I would see that he got the difference when the war is over.'
They talked of this for a little time.
Then Nicole got up from the table.
'I must go and see the children in thtir beds,' she said.
'Madame Arvers has been very kind, But one should not leave everything to her.'
'I will come too,' he said.
'They have been very good children all day, and no trouble.'
The children were all sleeping in one room, the two girls in the bed and the three little boys on a mattress on the floor, covered with rough blankets.
The peasant woman was tucking them up; she smiled broadly as Nicole and the old man came in, and disappeared back into the kitchen.
Ronnie said: 'My blanket smells of horses.'
Nothing was more probable, the old man thought.
He said: 'I expect you'll dream that you're going for a ride all night.'
Sheila said: 'May I go for a ride, too?'
'If you're very good.'
Rose said: 'May we stay here now?'
Nicole sat down on her bed.
'Why?' she said.
'Don't you want to see your father in London?'
La petite Rose said: 'I thought London was a town.'
'So it is.
A very big town.'
'I like being in the country like this,' Rose said.
'This is like it was where we used to live.'
Ronnie said: 'But we're all going to London.'
'Not all of you,' the old man said.
'You and Sheila are going to live with your Aunt Margaret at Oxford.'
'Are we?
Is Rose going to live with Aunt Margaret, top?'
'No.
Rose is going to live with her daddy in London.'
Sheila said: 'Is Pierre going to live with Aunt Margaret?'
'No,' he said.
'Pierre and Willem are going to America to live with my daughter.
Did you know I had a grown-up daughter, older than Nicole?
She's got a little boy of her own.'
They stared at him incredulously.
'What's his name?' Ronnie asked at last.
'Martin,' the old man said.
'He's the same age as Pierre.'
Pierre stared at them.
'Won't you be coming with us?'
'I don't think so,' Howard said.
'I think I shall have work to do in England.'
His Up trembled.