She left the ship after lunch, with Van Pickard, Frank Thornton and Avis Markman, but Avis and the middle-aged Frank were joining up with others, while Van decided to hire a taxi for the afternoon for Pat and himself.Van was what Alan would have termed an oddball. He was so friendly that it was impossible not to like him, but because he rather tried to sell himself as a ladies’ man it was also impossible to like him a great deal. Pat had never met any young man who was so difficult to know. He wouldn’t talk about business because this trip was in the nature of an annual leave, and when Pat put the usual companionable enquiries about his family, Van said,“I left the bunch when I was twenty-one, and I’ve never been back. In London, I live at a bachelor club.”A domestic environment less colourful Pat couldn’t imagine. No wonder the man had so little conversation. On a sightseeing tour he wasn’t such a bad companion, though, and he was as delighted as she with the gay centre of the historical town and the Vieux Port with its crowded fishing boats and pleasure craft.
