eyes. "Why, it might have been made for you!"

she said.

"I thought we'd have out bite to eat in the living-room-it's more informal. She set the food on a low table in front of the fireplace, a modernisitic one, sunk below the level of the floor. "You'll have to be satisfied with gas logs in this contraption. It doesn't hold a candle to your corner brick fireplace at Eden Height s." She smiled ruefully at her feeble pun.

They ate leisurely, stretching their stockinged feot out before the firo.

"Tell me more about Eden Heights, Van. Has it changed much

since I was there?"

"The weeping willow tree in the front yard practically

covers the whole area now," Van said. the shade in the summer time."

"Oh, do you still have all your dogs?"

"The poodles love

"Yes, Pierro and Melinda are the same as ever. Happy is showing his age now--he's over 14--but he's still among the living.

Evadne felt a flow of contentment knowing the little dogs were all still alive. How often she had patted their wooly heads in the past--a poor substitute gesture for the affection she had never dared openly show Van.

They continued their conversation long after the salad and steaks had disappeared from the plates.

"It's surprising," Evadne said, "how many subjects we can find to talk about despite the fact that we haven't seen each other for so many years."

"Perhaps that's the secret of it," Van answered.

"Jeanne never talks much, except about her work, or our social plans with friends, the little problems and decisions of every-day living. At times I think I'd go crazy without our collection of hi-fi recordings and the television

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