Hanged Man's House [antikvár]

'Those dogs!' Valerie said. 'Whatever's the matter with them?'"They've been at it all night,' her brother Edmund said. 'Onand on. They've been driving me mad.''You didn't get much sleep, did you?' she said. 'I thought Iheard you get up once or twice after I came out to see if Icould help you.''I'm sorry if I woke you.' Edmund Hackett sat down at thetable. He looked ill and exhausted as he dropped into his chair.He was in his pyjamas and dressing-gown. His face was haggardand his eyes, grey-green behind large, round, gold-rimmedspectacles, were red with tiredness. T went on being sick, orthinking I wanted to be sick and not being able to, for most ofthe night.''Why don't you go back to bed?' Valerie asked. 'I'll bringyour breakfast up to you.''No, it's all right, just give me some coffee. I don't want any-thing to eat.'Valerie, wearing a dressing-gown too, poured out the coffee.She looked at Edmund with concern. He was forty and she wasseven years younger, but her attitude to him, for as long as shecould remember, even in their childhood, had been maternal.He had always seemed to need it In his work he might be, in-deed she was convinced that he was, extremely competent, butoutside it he was a man who found the little practicalities of lifealmost impossible to deal with. His clothes, his papers, the actof remembering where he had put something down, his health,or making important decisions, such as when he should have hishair cut or what thriller he should read next, all presented himwith problems which it seemed were impossible for him tosolve without Valerie's advice and assistance.