‘I suppose,’ said Mathilda, staring gloomily ahead, ‘I might have known that when you did propose you’d do it in some graceless fashion peculiarly your own. What makes you think I want Valerie’s leavings?’

‘My God, you are a vulgar wench!’ Stephen exclaimed, grinning.

‘Well?’

‘I don’t know. I shouldn’t think you would want me. But I want you.’

‘Why? To save you from further entanglements with glamorous blondes?’

‘Hell, no! Because I love you.’

‘Since when?’

‘Always, I think. Consciously, since Christmas Eve. I’ve never quarrelled with you, Mathilda, have I? Do you know, I’ve never wanted to?’

‘That must be a record.’

‘It is. I won’t ever quarrel with you, my sweet. That’s a promise.’

‘It’s irresistible.’

He stopped, and swung her round to face him, holding her by the shoulders. ‘Does that mean you’ll marry me?’

She nodded, looking up at him with a faint flush in her cheeks. ‘Somebody’s clearly got to keep you in order. It may as well be me.’

He pulled her rather roughly into his arms. ‘O God, Mathilda, do keep me in order!’ he said, in a suddenly thickened voice. ‘I need you! I need you damnably!’

She found that her own voice was unsteady. ‘I know. You are such a fool, Stephen: such a dear, impossible fool!’

‘So are you, to care a damn for me,’ he said. ‘I never thought you did. I can’t think why you do.’

She took his face between her hands, looking up at him a little mistily. ‘I like savage creatures.’

‘Bull-terriers and Stephen Herriard.’

‘That’s it. What do you see in me? I’m an ill-favoured woman, my love, and you will have to confront my ugly mug across your breakfast-table all the days of your life.’

‘You have a beautiful plainness, Mathilda. Your eyes laugh, too. Did you know?’

‘No, I didn’t know. Tell me more!’

He laughed, and, pulling her hand through his arm, held it, and strolled on with her across the spongy turf. ‘I shan’t be able to offer you this for your home.’

‘It’s all right with me. But you love it. You ought to have it.’

‘Don’t think I could keep it up as things are. It will be sold, anyway, and the proceeds split between the three of us.’

‘You couldn’t buy it in?’

He shook his head. ‘Couldn’t run it on what was left if I did. I don’t mind. I’ve got you.’

They walked on. ‘If Paula and Joe didn’t want it sold – if they were willing to forgo their share of the price, you could keep it. Nat meant you to have it. I always thought that was why he bought it.’

‘It was, originally. It’s all right, Mathilda: I shan’t mind – much. The only thing I couldn’t bear would be to see Joe here.’

‘Well, you won’t: he doesn’t like the place.’

The saturnine look came back into his face. ‘You know nothing of what Joe likes or dislikes. None of us does.’