She looked at him. A certain blunt, blind stupidity in him palled on her soul, limiting her.

‘You give yourself away by that last,’ she said.

He sat and wondered.

‘I shall go away soon,’ he said.

She turned on him.

‘Remember,’ she said, ‘I am completely independent of you — completely. You make your arrangements, I make mine.’

He pondered this.

‘You mean we are strangers from this minute?’ he asked.

She halted and flushed. He was putting her in a trap, forcing her hand. She turned round on him.