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be in residence, she told herself, she would leave a message with the
housekeeper.
<p no=37>
Elizabeth Mowbray having been informed by a servant of Bess Halidon's
demise, had sent Joan a formal but kindly letter of condolence.   She had
made no reference to Joan's first visit to the Hall, considering it
unsuitable to combine such a letter with practicalities.
<p no=38>
Presenting herself at the servant's entrance, Joan asked nervously if she
might speak to the housekeeper.   After a few minutes, she was shown into
that estimable if forbidding woman's presence.
<p no=39>
"You wished to see me, I believe," Mistress Bubwith said coldly.   She was
uncertain as to the position of this girl whom she knew to be daughter to
a washerwoman but whom the dowager-duchess, a lady of formal demeanour and
rigid etiquette, none the less treated as one of higher status.
<p no=40>
There is more in this than meets the eye! thought the housekeeper.   The
girl is polite enough, though somewhat raw in speech - yet her likeness to
the lady Anne is quite uncanny.   It is plain that someone, sometime, bore
an infant on the wrong side of the blanket!   The lady Anne is a Mowbray
all right, so 't is plain from which side of the family this lass comes.
That being so, I must watch my step and keep my ears pinned back.
<p no=41>
"I'm here to see Her Grace," explained Joan, having  rehearsed what she
would say during the two-mile walk from Briar Cottage.   "If now's not
convenient, I can come back another day."
<p no=42>
"What is the nature of your business with Her Grace?" enquired the
housekeeper coldly.
<p no=43>
"It has to do with what was said last time I was here."
<p no=44>
"Her Grace is at home.   Wait here and I will enquire as to an
appointment."
<p no=45>
Mistress Bubwith returned very quickly, seeming a mite breathless.
<p no=46>
"Her Grace will see you now, Joan Halidon.   She can spare you but a few
minutes, she says -" the dowager-duchess had in fact said no such thing "-
but will see you at once."
<p no=47 segment_break>
IT may never be known whether the Syrian army ever really did intend to seize
Baabda Palace, drive out General Michel Aoun, and install the new President,
Elias Hrawi, in his place.
<p no=48>
But if it did, it was apparently to have been a big affair - no mere
helicopter-borne "surgical strike" - in which sheer weight of numbers and
firepower could have been expected to guarantee ultimate success.
<p no=49>
Very heavy Syrian casualties would apparently have been deemed a lesser price
to pay than the probable failure of anything less than what the general's men
say was planned: a full-scale armoured and infantry assault involving 40,000
men on five main axes along a 50-kilometre front.
<p no=50>
The likelihood that, after all the fanfare and ultimatums, it is not going to
happen, or at least not for the time being, is another boost for the "rebel"
general in his lonely defiance of Lebanon's Muslims - indeed, a good many of
its Christians, too - much of the Arab world, and international communities.
<p no=51>
The Tayif agreement was supposed to be a formula for peace, but last week it
came close to becoming a recipe for one of the biggest, almost certainly the
most ferocious, battles of the 14 1/2 -year war.
<p no=52 segment_break>
Nothing ever happens on Just Like Home - that's the name of the planet I
live on.   I get so bored!
<p no=53>
But tonight was Remembering Night and that's exciting.   There's the big
fire where everybody must put on something that they love and watch it
burn.   Then there's the dancing round the fire.
<p no=54>
But what I like best about Remembering Night are the clothes.   We usually
wear what we like on Just Like Home - but the clothes must have the name
of our name-animal on them.   For example, I always have the word
"Hummingbird" on my clothes, which means my name is Hummingbird - Hummy
for short.
<p no=55>
Nobody knows what a hummingbird looks like, but we know what birds are.
Birds are animals that fly.   The Book of Remembering tells us that.
<p no=56>
I do n't always believe what the Book of Remembering says.
<p no=57>
Nobody knows who you are on Remembering Night because you wear black
clothes that cover you from head to foot, and there is no name of your
name-animal.   You can only see people's eyes looking out of the eye-holes
in the clothes.
<p no=58>
It was dark outside.   The only light came from the big fire.   I held my
father's hand at first and we danced together.   My mother danced away and
I could n't see her.   Soon I lost my father.   I did n't know where they
were.
<p no=59>
It did n't matter.   I was dancing in the middle of the crowd.   Our
family would meet together in the robot plane afterwards.
<p no=60>
There were about a thousand people round the fire.   Too many people to
count.   Nearly everybody on Just Like Home was there.
<p no=61>
Everybody, on planets all over the Galaxy, was dancing round fires at the
same time.   What a wonderful thing!
<p no=62>
The last dance began.   You hold hands in a big circle round the fire -
everybody together.   You dance round and round in a circle until...
<p no=63 segment_break>
"It does indeed, Your Grace." Tears again filled Joan's eyes but she
brushed them away.   "Yea, I'd like to keep it - if it's possible."
<p no=64>
"It is indeed, Joan - and keep it you shall," smiled Elizabeth Mowbray.
"Whilst you remain here with us - and let me say here and now that there
will be a place here for you for as long as you wish - you will share in
the life of the household and have all provided.   Furthermore, it would
please me to give you an allowance for your personal use."
<p no=65>
"Your Grace, I do n't understand - why are you doing all this for me?  Has
it to do with what you said as you'd tell me one day?"
<p no=66>
"In some measure - but only in some measure," replied Elizabeth Mowbray.
She looked down at a letter on the table in front of her, collecting her
thoughts.   Is not this lass sister, half-sister to my daughter? she asked
herself.   What else, since she is of my lord's begetting?   "I see you as
a sister for my daughter - the sister she never had.   Might one then ask