I hadn�t told my parents, but when I walked into the morning-room on my return I announced - almost belligerently according to Mother later: "I�m engaged." The parents were, I suppose naturally, not madly keen on this latest move of mine, as they felt it was very rushed and, of course, they didn�t know Pat at all.

A few weeks later he arrived by train and spent a couple of weeks with us, and they got to know and like each other. On wakening on his first morning at Aytoun, Pat waited patiently for tea to be brought to him. He hadn�t realised that we never had that luxury, that the housemaid merely came upstairs at 7 o�clock each morning and knocked on each bedroom door and listened for the answering "Thank you" for the call. It was only later that he told me how he missed that cuppa - and on subsequent visits Mother saw to it that he always got his early morning tea.

I was distressed for Jim Rennie's sake while Pat was with us - Jim used to come to Aytoun, either to collect me or to have a meal with us all, and did not necessarily phone beforehand. I had not seen him since my return from Lusaka, and he arrived unheralded one day just at lunchtime - and I had to introduce Pat firmly saying: "My fiance." Not a comfortable occasion - it must have been a great disappointment to him but he had never given me the opportunity of turning him down!

While he was with us I was of course regularly at the office, but we did have lots of time together before Pat went on to East London to see his sister Kay and his parents. He then gave Kay the unenviable task of buying presents for this girl she�d never met -she managed very well, however, and I was pleased with her choice of gifts sent on Pat�s behalf.

Shena�s letter from Blyth on October 18, 1935, tells something about the situation and reactions...

Another reaction to my engagement was from Stanley (Sharkey) Osler when I met him by chance in Adderley Street one day. He said: �1 hear you�re engaged to a wild Irishman� - and I retorted: �He�s not a wild Irishman at all - he�s Pat Sinclair and he was at Kingswood College with you.�

The Cape Times moved into its new spacious building in Burg Street, and I had my own little office which led into a visitors� waiting room and then through to the Editor�s office. He had another door into the passage, so that he could escape if I indicated that he had an unwelcome visitor. In little cubicles similar to mine were the Assistant Editors, Dudley D�Ewes and Victor Norton (later Editor). I saw a lot of them and their wives Olwen and Molly, both of whom now had baby daughters.