Thursday's Child Read Online Free

men.
    Shyness swept over me and I hesitated, while the doors behind me made a steady plopping sound as they swung back and forth. Four men in American-cut suits stood near me. They were coffee-skinned, and I could feel their eyes looking me over. Their gaze was not insolent and they seemed to approve of me, for they sighed softly as I passed. Two Negroes sitting near bowed their heads self-consciously over a magazine as my skirt brushed the small table in front of them. They made me feel thoroughly womanly, and I enjoyed the change from being Miss Margaret Delaney, the lady from the Welfare.
    A white-haired lady was sitting by one of the two fires that blazed in the room, and she was playing chess with a young Chinese. As I looked round, she cried, ‘Checkmate,’ triumphantly, and her opponent’s eyesvanished into slits as he laughed.
    â€˜Excellent play, most excellent,’ he said.
    The lady looked up and saw me and I went to her, and asked where Mrs Forbes could be found.
    â€˜She is probably in her office on the floor above.’ The voice was quiet and cultured.
    The Chinese bowed slightly: ‘Permit me to take the lady up,’ he said.
    His opponent smiled graciously and said that Dr Wu would be pleased to direct me.
    Dr Wu rose and bowed to me: ‘Come this way,’ he said.
    He led me out of the lounge and up a flight of stairs to a series of offices.
    â€˜This is your first visit here?’ he inquired, his eyes twinkling behind rimless spectacles and his hands making neat, small gestures to guide me along the passage.
    â€˜Yes, it is.’
    â€˜I trust that we may have the pleasure of seeing you here again,’ he said, as he knocked at the door. He bowed again and left me, as Bessie called, ‘Come in.’
    â€˜My deah,’ said Bessie, ‘I’m delighted to see you. Sit down and have a cigarette.’
    Bessie, out of uniform, had more charm than most women. That evening she was wearing a pink cardigan that gave colour to her naturally pale complexion. Her dark hair was brushed up in a Pompadour style. As she lit my cigarette I tried to imagine her drilling on a parade ground, but failed hopelessly. The determination and discipline which had lain under her uniform was still with her, however, as I was soon to find out.
    â€˜Bessie, what are you doing here?’
    â€˜I’m the Entertainment Secretary – it’s my job to see that visitors here enjoy themselves.’
    I nodded. That explained the Nigerian chieftains at the theatre.
    â€˜Do you like it?’
    â€˜Rather. I meet anybody who is anybody – and no two days are alike.’
    â€˜What have you in mind for me to do?’
    â€˜I’m starting a dancing class – very good teacher, but notenough partners. If you are free, I wondered if you would volunteer to come along on Thursday evenings and act as a partner. I can assure you that there are less amusing ways of spending an evening.’
    â€˜But women are two a penny in this town, Bessie. Why pick on a rather dull person like me?’
    â€˜Two-a-penny women are not required in this establishment,’ said Bessie. ‘Every woman crossing the threshold of this club has to be vouched for personally by a member of the staff or by some other responsible person. Each member has a pass which she must show to the commissionaire at the door.’
    â€˜No commissionaire was there when I came in.’
    â€˜Oh,’ said Bessie, and seized the telephone. Her conversation was brief and frigid. The commissionaire never again left his post without being relieved by his colleague. After Bessie had dealt with him, I think he would have stuck there like the guard at the gate of Pompeii, even to being engulfed by boiling lava.
    Bessie turned back to me.
    â€˜You always struck me as someone whose head was well screwed on, and I badly need helpers like that. I noticed at the theatre that you are still single. Any ideas of