Page 224 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

and, presumably, to his lovely wife, details of whom I do not recall. But I do recall
many details of Julia Sheppard, his lovely daughter.

It was quickly evident to me that I had a real dilemma here. Firstly, I had
happened upon a really first-class girl who exhibited an intelligence and
sensibility that I instinctively felt was very close to mine, though I had a rival
of some substance. But, secondly, this Julia was not to be lightly dismissed; she
was certainly attractive, but was less ‘composed’, in a lissom sort of way, than the
Judith that I had met only a few days before. The problem was acute, as although
I felt that Stevie probably didn’t have the legs for maintaining a relationship, at
least at this point, this Julia was plainly a quite sensual girl, one whom it would
be foolish to overlook in light of the uncertainties of life (one of those being that
Judith was apparently ‘pinned’ – whatever that may mean – to the trainee surgeon
still in Canada). I decided that all I could do was play a waiting game … but
that certainly did not involve going back to the head waiter for a further favour
(actually, this was probably irrelevant; Colonel was a very senior rank, almost
certainly to be seated at the captain’s table. No favours were needed).

On the way to Hong Kong, socialising proceeded. However, feeling that
I was somewhat left out in the Stevie stakes, I tried to have my way with
Julia. Although unsuccessful (she had a boyfriend, though how to maintain a
relationship when the army was plainly to soon depart Singapore was beyond
me) I did my best, as I thought her enthusiasm showed that she was far from
unavailable. Time was not, of course, wasted; I recall that in a John Updike
short story he described how the most sensual part of a woman was the small
of her back; on that basis, Julia was an exceptionally gifted girl. We also took
an afternoon in Hong Kong to go to Repulse Bay, where I further recalled the
(apocryphal?) statement by Florenz Ziegfeld: “Always judge a woman by her
legs.” Strangely, everything that I knew about ‘shepherding’ demonstrated that
all of the women that I then knew in that category were superbly endowed.
(There is a sort of louche symmetry to these unimportant things, it should be
noted. Ziegfeld had a loose association with the Folies Bergere of Paris; it was
from that inspiration that he formed the infamous Ziegfeld Follies, a Broadway
sensation in the 1900s. One can only note that ‘bergere’ is the French for
Shepherdess … Ziegfeld knew his world; his comment was simply a truism. At
times, fate seems to play its cards with subtle mischievousness.)

But the afternoon in Hong Kong was followed by one of the most delightful
evenings that I had yet experienced, certainly while I had been at sea. The HSBC
manager and his wife invited Judith, the ‘bank boys’ and me to their apartment for
a parting evening. There was no question that we had constituted a very convivial
group, even Flash being a strangely cherished companion. As is the fashion in
Hong Kong, the apartment was small but exquisitely furnished, though in the
rather heavyweight Chinese style, and there were two servants, an amah and a

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