with confident assurance. He was silent, he did not contradict her.

She stood negligently, staring away from him, into the distance. On the edge of her consciousness the question was asking itself, automatically:

‘Why ARE you behaving in this IMPOSSIBLE and ridiculous fashion.’ But she was sullen, she half shoved the question out of herself. She could not get it clean away, so she felt self-conscious.

Gerald, very pale, was watching her closely. His eyes were lit up with intent lights, absorbed and gleaming. She turned suddenly on him.

‘It’s you who make me behave like this, you know,’ she said, almost suggestive.

‘I? How?’ he said.