He looked up at her almost frightened, furtive. Then he nodded, a little sullenly. She let go his hand: he had made not the lightest response. And they sat in silence.

‘Do you know,’ he said, suddenly looking at her with dark, self-important, prophetic eyes, ‘your fate and mine, they will run together, till — ’ and he broke off in a little grimace.

‘Till when?’ she asked, blanched, her lips going white. She was terribly susceptible to these evil prognostications, but he only shook his head.

‘I don’t know,’ he said, ‘I don’t know.’

Gerald did not come in from his skiing until nightfall, he missed the coffee and cake that she took at four