He did not wait for her answer, but went to the grog tray that stood in a corner of the room and poured from a bottle that he took from a silver wine-cooler.

He brought the glass to her and put it in her hand.

“I don’t – want it,” Thalia said.

“But you will drink it to please me.”

“Yes – of course.”

There was a note of humility in her voice and it suddenly struck her that she had now committed herself to do what he required of her, whatever it might be.

‘I am grateful – very very grateful,’ she thought.

At the same time she felt as if already she had lost what she told him that she prized so highly – her self-respect.

Now she would take her place with women like Genevieve who would entertain gentlemen in their nightgowns and expect the man to whom she had just been introduced to pay for the pleasure of looking at her.

‘I must not think of it,’ Thalia told herself.

Nevertheless the thoughts were there crowding in on her and making her feel as if she had ceased to be herself, but instead was the type of woman she had despised even while she waited on them as a humble shop assistant.

The Earl did not speak and neither did she.

She sipped her wine because he had ordered her to do so, aware, although she did not look up at him, that his eyes were on her face.

The door opened and the Earl’s secretary came into the room.

He held a large bulky envelope in his hand.

The Earl walked across the room towards him.

“I have included notes of the highest value we have, my Lord,” the secretary reported.

“Thank you,” the Earl replied.

He took the package and, as the door closed, he reached Thalia’s side and held it out to her.

“This is what you require,” he said, “and because I don’t think that you should walk about with such a large sum of money on you, may I leave it anywhere you wish? Or take you there in my phaeton?”

“Will you – take me – back to the shop?”

“If that is what you want,” the Earl agreed.

She put down her glass and now, holding the envelope in her hand, she rose to her feet.

She looked at him, her eyes very wide and a little frightened in her pale face.

“I want to say – thank you.”

“Shall we leave that until this evening?” the Earl asked

“Y-yes – of course.”

There was an apprehensive note in the words that he did not miss.

“Before we leave,” the Earl said, “there is something I want to say.”

Thalia looked up at him and he thought she was trembling.