She was alarmed, knowing she had been watched. At the supper table she told the story, laughing at herself because of her love for the stone girl, and produced The Language of Flowers for everyone to pass around and look at. Lilac meant First Emotions of Love, and a red rose, Love.
'You're not going to answer him?' demanded Rose, furious. 'Lovely Rose,' said Colin, 'of course she's going to answer.’And they all pored over the book to work out a suitable message. But what Sophie wanted to say was, ‘Yes, I am interested but don't jump to conclusions. ‘Nothing in the book seemed suitable. In the end they all decided on snowdrops, for Hope – but they had already come and gone, and periwinkle, Early Friendship. Sophie said she thought there were some in her mother's garden. And what else?
'Oh, go on,' said Geoffrey. 'Live dangerously. lily of the valley – Return of Happiness. And phlox – Agreement.'
Sophie put her posy on the pedestal, and lingered; went away, came back, and found her flowers gone. But someone else might have taken them? No, for when she went there the next day there was a young man who said he had been watching her ' for ages' and had been too shy to approach her without the language of flowers. A likely story, for shy he was not. He was an actor, studying at the Academy where she planned to go in the autumn. This was Roland Shattock, haggardly handsome and dramatic in everything and he was some kind of Trotskyist. He came often to the supper table and was here tonight. Older than the others, a year older even than Andrew, he wore a worldly-wise look, and a suede jacket dyed purple with fringes, and his presence was felt as a visitation from the adult world, and something like an entrance ticket to it. If he did not regard them as ' kids' , then... It never crossed their idealistic minds that he was often in need of a good meal.
When Roland was there Colin tended to be silent, and even went upstairs early, particularly when Johnny dropped in, for the arguments between the young Trotskyist and the old Stalinist were loud, and fierce and often ugly. Sylvia fled upstairs too, and went to Julia.
Johnny had been in Cuba, and had arranged to make a little film. 'But it won't bring in much money, I am afraid, Frances.' Meanwhile he had gone to visit independent Zambia, with Comrade Mo.
Now Rose: there were difficulties all the way, for what seemed like every day of the four months. She would not go back to her school, and she would not go home. She was prepared to go to St Joseph's, if she could base herself here, in this house. Andrew travelled to see her parents again. They believed that this charming, and so upper-class young man had plans for their daughter, and this made it easier for them to agree, not to St Joseph's, which was beyond their means, but to a day school in London. They would pay the fees for that and give her an allowance for clothes. But they would not pay for Rose's board and keep. They allowed it to be understood that it was Andrew's responsibility to pay for her. That meant Frances, in effect.
Perhaps she could be asked to do something in return, like housework – for there were always problems with keeping the place clean, in spite of Julia's Mrs Philby, who would never do much more than vacuum floors. 'Don't be silly,' said Andrew. 'Can you imagine Rose lifting a finger?'
A school of a progressive kind was found in London, and Rose agreed to everything. ' If she could just stay here, she wouldn'tbe any trouble. ' Then Andrew came to Frances to say there was a big problem. Rose was afraid to tell Frances. And it was Jill, too. The girls had been caught without tickets on the Underground, and it was the third time for both of them. They were summoned to see the juvenile delinquency officer, in the office of the Transport Police. There would certainly be fines, and Borstal was a real possibility. Frances was too angry, in her all too familiar way with Rose, a dull dispirited emotion, like chronic indigestion, to confront her, but asked Andrew to tell the girls she would go with them to their interview. On the appointed morning she came down to find the two sullen girls united in hatred for the world, in the kitchen, smoking. They were both made up to look like pandas, with their white eye-paint and black-circled eyes and black painted nails. They wore little mini-dresses from Biba's, stolen of course. They could not have found an appearance more likely to prejudice Authority against them.
Frances said, 'If you do really care about getting off with just a lecture, you could wash your faces.' She was wondering if the girls were determined to make things as difficult as they could, perhaps even that they were harbouring ambitions to be sent to Borstal. This would of course serve Frances right: one is not in loco parentis without at some point taking punishment that is in fact aimed at delinquent parents.
Rose at once said, 'I don't see why I should.'
Frances waited, curious, for what Jill might reply. This formerly quiet, good, conforming girl, who might sit through a whole evening saying nothing, only smiling, was hardly discernible behind her paint and her anger.
Taking her cue from Rose: 'I don't see why either.'
They went by Underground, Frances buying tickets for them all, and noting their sarcastic smiles as she did so. They were soon in the office where non-payers of fares, juveniles, met their fate in the person of Mrs Kent, who wore a navy-blue uniform of a generic kind that suggested the majesty of officialdom. Her face, however, was kindly, while she kept up a severe look, to inspire respect.
' Please sit down,’ she said, and Frances sat to one side, while the girls, having stood, like obstinate horses, for long enough to make a point, slumped, in a way that was meant to suggest they had been pushed.
' It's very simple,’ said Mrs Kent, though her sigh, of which she was certainly unaware, suggested otherwise. ‘You have both been warned twice. You knew the third time would be the last time. I could send you to the magistrate, and it would be up to him ifyou are taken into care or not, but ifyou will give guarantees of good behaviour, you will be let off with a fine, but your parents, or parent, or guardian will have to take responsibility for you.' She said this, or something like it, so often that her biro expressed boredom and exasperation, doodling jagged patterns on a notepad. Having ended, she smiled at Frances.
'Are you the parent of either of these two girls?'
'No. I am not.'
'A guardian? In some kind of legal capacity?'
'No, but they are living with me – in our house, and they will be going to school from there.’While she knew Rose would be, she didn't know about Jill, and so she was telling a lie.
Mrs Kent was taking a long look at the girls, who sat sulking, their legs apart, their legs crossed high, knees raised, showing black tights to the crotch. Frances noted that Jill was trembling: she would not have believed this cool girl capable of it.
' Could I have a word with you in private?' Mrs Kent said to Frances. She got up and said to the girls, ‘We won't be one minute. ' She showed Frances to the door, and followed her in to a little private room, evidently her refuge from the strain of these interviews.
She went to the window, and so did Frances. They looked down over a little garden where two lovers licked at one ice-cream cone. Mrs Kent said, ‘I liked your article about Juvenile Crime. I cut it out. '