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Show 186 its workings. She liked it, not only because of the accoutrements - - a pleasant house, a car, travel - - but] a deep sense of gift. She knew of her beauty - - how could she not? - - and regarded it as a ^pBR, something as physical and valuable as, say, the National Trust. Oddly enough Franklin didn't seem to care as much as she; he seemed to find her looks fountain enough in themselves, and while she sensed a sort of glow within him as they walked into a club, or a general asked her to dance, he never used the opportunity to further his career. Which, perhaps, was why she loved him. His mild contentedness was salve to her itching ambition. Returning after a day's work he liked to slip on a pair o$ old trousers, sip at a martini while telling her of the day's events, and settle in with a book. t h o c a h And she was pleased with her marriage, at least this aspect of it she had been in all day. Moreover j there was even less to do at the guest-house than in a home of her own. She had unpacked a few knicknacks, hung a scroll or two to offset the terrible impersonality of temporary quarters, had tried to read - - but something within lay unsatisfied. She wanted a structure, a society that would set off her talents as a ring presents a diamond, but Naka did not promise much even when they were housed. The Major nad no more of idea of social life than Chaucer, and the breach with the A Engineers, she saw, lay like a fissure down the middle of the community. And the very couple that might be expected to head up a "set," the Wilsons, lacked both interest and charisma. |