We’re really going to have to grasp that nettle soon, she thought. But not now, not this evening. Maybe tomorrow – I’ll have to talk to Helen ab...ut it. After collecting Helen’s things from her house in town and stowing them in the boot of Suzi’s white Mazda sports car, they had driven to the small supermarket in the village and stocked up on essential groceries before heading back. Once they had unloaded and unpacked, the exertions of the morning coupled with the relentless heat of the day. My parents like him. He’s very polite and shows them proper respect.”“Good.”“And he behaves properly. He would never ask me to do something I wasn’t ready to do.”“A sign of a mature man,” I said. “Is he a student?”“A graduate student in the physics department. He’s been working part-time at Argonne National Laboratory on the Advanced Photon Source project. They had their first successful test a few weeks ago. It produces the brightest X-ray beams available, which they use for research. He’ll. I tried to find some.She dropped her head, so I could see the way the last of the sunlight tangled with her black hair.“They say you help other students with assignments. If I’ve made a mistake….”She had an accent, just enough to be fascinating.I said, “I’m that person. Something I can do for you?” Still I couldn’t find anything wrong with her, but I kept looking just the same. My blood pressure had gone to about three hundred.It’s hard to describe a girl like that. You can say she’s five-three. He invited my father and me to dinner at Upton Lodge, sending his carriage for us. It was not a happy evening as my father glowered all through the meal. I withdrew allowing them the time to smoke cigars and take a glass of brandy. When they joined me in the drawing room father appeared to be a little happier. It was many years later that I found out why. Ten thousand guineas do help to smooth a ruffled demeanour. The money was actually for me, so if anything happened to Rupert I would be cared.