at his son Michael would make a man of business, or an expert in
Forestry, was altogether fantastic and absurd. And from the desperate
involutions of the final sentence Dorothy disentangled the clear fact
that Michael's personal charm, combined with his hostility to
discipline, his complete indifference to the aims of the authorities,
and his utter lack of any sense of responsibility, made him a dangerous
influence in any school.

That was the end of Anthony's plans for Michael.

The next morning Nicky wired from some village in Sussex: "Married
yesterday.--NICKY."

After that nothing seemed to matter. With Nicky gone from them they were
glad to have Michael back again. Frances said they might be thankful for
one thing--that there wasn't any German Peggy or any German Desmond in
Michael's problem.

And since both Michael and Veronica were to be removed at once, the
simplest arrangement was that he should return to Dresden and bring her
back with him.

Frances had never been afraid for Michael.

Michael knew that he had made havoc of his father's plans. He couldn't
help that. His affair was far too desperate. And any other man but his
father would have foreseen that the havoc was inevitable and would have
made no plans. He knew he had been turned into the tree-travelling
scheme that had been meant for Nicky, because, though Nicky had slipped
out of it, his father simply couldn't bear to give up his idea. And no
wonder, when the dear old thing had so few of them.

He had been honest with his father about it; every bit as honest as
Nicky had been. He had wanted to travel if he could go to China and
Japan, just as Nicky had wanted to travel if he could go to places like
the West Indies and the Himalaya. And he didn't mind trying to get the
trees in when he was there. He was even prepared to accept Germany and
the School for Forestry if Germany was the only way to China and Japan.
But he had told his father not to mind if nothing came of it at the end
of all the travelling. And his father had said he would take the risk.
He preferred taking the risk to giving up his idea.

And Michael had been honest with himself. He had told himself that he
too must take some risks, and the chances were that a year or two in
Germany wouldn't really hurt him. Things never did hurt you as much as
you thought they would. He had thought that Cambridge would do all sorts
of things to him, and Cambridge had not done anything to him at al