‘Not sherry! No! Something else! What then? What is there, Thomas?’

‘Port wine — curacao — ’

‘I would love some curacao — ’ said Gudrun, looking at the sick man confidingly.

‘You would. Well then Thomas, curacao — and a little cake, or a biscuit?’

‘A biscuit,’ said Gudrun. She did not want anything, but she was wise.

‘Yes.’

He waited till she was settled with her little glass and her biscuit. Then he was satisfied.

‘You have heard the plan,’ he said with some excitement, ‘for a studio for Winifred, over the stables?’