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manners;— about easy manners!— However—. All that I have to say to you, then, is, that I cannot satisfy you and Hester and forbid Captain Ingpen the house.’

‘We won’t go on wrangling, Mother. You are talking extravagantly. You know I have not asked you to forbid him the house. All I have asked is that you should not discuss Hester’s shortcomings with him. And now I had better be going. Good-bye.’

‘Good-bye,’ said Monica. She turned to the window. She held back wild tears. If only death would take her! He could leave her like this. If only she could die! — But Clive was not gone. He still stood there, behind her. ‘Mummy.’ That was what she heard. She turned and looked at him. ‘Mummy,’ he repeated; and she saw the supplication of his face.

‘Clive— Clive———’ she faltered, holding out her arms. He came into them. He put his head down on her shoulder. And suddenly she felt that he had broken into sobs. Never, never since his childhood, had she seen Clive weep. He had hidden from her, during those years after the war. The abysses of his suffering were revealed to her as, aghast, yet melted to an ecstasy of tenderness, she