THE SECRET GARDEN

(Continued from Page 9)

It sounds as though you could use some help."

"Kitch 8" Evadne cmilod. "How long it's been since I've heard that funny abbreviation of yours, Van! No ono olso over uses it. Here," she handed Van some tomatoes, "you can peel these for the salad."

"Perhaps I should wash up, first," Van suggested.

"Cf course! In there," Evadne indicated a hallway. "I'11 wait 'til you get back before I put the steaks on to broil. Oh--it's the third door to your left," she added as Van left the kitchen.

Van, out of earshot of this last remark, walked down the hall. She paused to glance through a doorway to her left. Her eyos took in the luxurious wall-to-wall carpeting, the floor-to-ceiling mirror built into one of the walls, the simply-styled but sumptuous furniture. Twin beds, though. Van smiled wryly.

She walked on.

"Wonder whose idea that was?" she mused.

She opened the door and walked through, not expecting to come into the patio--a sort of private roof garden. Turning back, she found the door had clicked shut. Apparently the look had been left on and could only be oponed from the inside. "Damn!" she muttered, shuddering against the chill after being in the warm apartment. "It's cold out here! Well, I suppose Evadne will como looking for me soon enough when I don't return promptly." Van strolled to the edge of the wall and looked over. Cars bumbled through the streets far below--little black bugs with luminous eyes in a neon-lit jungle. "No ono could hear me from this height," she thought.

Her eyes discerned, despite the dusk, a wall switch ne ar the door. She pressed it. Instantly the patio was flooded with light. Van, glancing around her, noticed at once how different the patio was in contrast to the rest of the place. No fancy, ultra-sophisticated patio furniture here. A

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