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Rosamund at last saw a chance of interrupting her. "Who have you got there now? In the settlement, I mean."

"Oh! . . ." Lesley started, like a somnambulist suddenly awakened, but the next moment slipped into the new track. "Oh, yes, of course I ought to tell you about them before you meet them. I've got two families called Benson and Turner, and a single man called Ivory. I picked him up on the road one day when I was out driving and he thumbed a lift. Elphinstone didn't want to stop for him, but I made him, and then I found he had nowhere to go and hadn't had a proper meal for days—he hadn't even got a ration book."

"He's got one now, I hope."

"Oh, yes. Benson got one for him. Benson used to have a shop in London, but it never did well, and in the war it was blitzed, and he never got adequate compensation. The authorities treated him abominably. He was in the army for a time, and when the war ended he had no home. So he was thankful when he saw my advertisement."

"Oh, you advertised?"