Other People's Houses

Staying with them is Michael Grahame, a young officer on leave, engaged to Anne. The Sheldons are expecting an evacuee with a child, but when the couple arrive they prove to be a Mrs Shore and her "refaned" and apparently common grown-up daughter Saffron. They do not shake down very well. Saffron soon appears to be carrying on a flirtation with middle-aged Charles Maddock, next door. Michael finds that Juliet Maddock, Charle's wife, is a B.B.C. actress. She promises to try and get some of his short plays accepted, and Anne imagines that that the two of them are having an affair. Juliet, however, has a problem of her own. Her son Christopher, by a former husband, has married secretly and is estranged from his mother. Saffron's behaviour becomes almost outrageous, adding greatly to Vera's already exasperating problems. Then it appears that the girl is expecting a baby. Everybody thinks the worst, and Juliet half suspects Charles. Fortunately, Christopher turns up and reveals that Saffron is really Kit, his young wife - news which produces general apologies. Juliet has convinced Anne that there is nothing between her and Michael, so all is well at last, and Vera discovers a new sympathy for those whom wartime condemns to live in other people's houses.