She tried her mother first:
"Mummy, look. You just press this and the light comes out at the other end."
Suzanne's eyes on her letter did not lift, and Bébita laid a soft little hand on the tinted cheek:
"Mummy, do please look."
Suzanne pushed the hand away with an angry movement.
"Let me alone, Bébita," she said sharply and, getting up, thrust the child out of her way and went into the house.
For a moment Bébita was astonished. Her mother, who was so often cross to other people, was rarely so to her. But the torch was too enthralling for any other subject to occupy her thoughts and she turned to her grandfather, reading a business communication held out in front of his nose for he had on the wrong glasses. She crowded in under his arm and sparked the torch at him waiting to see his delighted surprise. But he only drew her close, kissed her cheek and murmured without moving his eyes:
"Yes, darling. It's wonderful."
That was not what she wanted so she tried her grandmother:
"Gran, do look at my torch."