“Why should you think me spoilt?” the Earl asked aggressively.

“How can you be anything else?” she replied. “Look at this house, the things you possess and, of course – yourself.”

“Tell me about myself.”

He spoke almost as if he was a child eager for praise.

“What can I say about the Earl of Hellington?” she asked. “He is a noted sportsman, he is at the top of the social pinnacle of fame, he is handsome and wealthy! There must be a snag somewhere, but I have not yet found it.”

“The snag is,” the Earl said, “that I cannot persuade one small, extremely determined young woman to give me her heart.”

“If I did,” Thalia asked, “what would you do with it? Add it to all the others you have accumulated? You must have quite a valuable collection by now.”

“You are not to speak to me like that,” the Earl retorted.

“Why not? And because you are angry I have the feeling that I have touched you on a raw nerve, which doubtless is the truth!”

“If there was ever an infuriating and irritating young woman, it is you!” the Earl exclaimed. “Stop jeering at me and talk to me sensibly for a change.”

“If by sensibly you mean you are going to persuade me to do what I have no intention of doing now or ever, then you can save your breath!”

Thalia rose from the sofa where she had been sitting.

“I intend to look now at all the lovely things you have in this room.”

She walked resolutely towards one picture.

“A Rubens!” she exclaimed. “If you only knew how much I have always wanted to see one. The colours are superb! Just as I thought they would be. In a book I once read it said that he always painted his second wife whom he adored into each of his pictures.”

“I have no wish to put you in a picture,” the Earl said. “I want you in my arms.”

Thalia turned from her contemplation of the Rubens.

“That is a very banal statement,” she said, “and not really worthy of you.”

“Damn you!” the Earl exclaimed. “One day you will make me lose my temper and then there will be no use you complaining of the consequences!”

Thalia laughed.

“You don’t frighten me,” she said. “And, now that I know what you are really like, I will let you into another secret. Last night Hannah made me bring a pistol with me when I dined with you.”

“A pistol?”

There was no doubting the Earl’s astonishment.

“I carried it in my satin bag. It was a very small pistol, but it could still do a lot of damage.”

“Is that why you were not afraid when I said that I might keep you by force?”