‘No indeed; and I am mortified by it. I can only hope that reports of the case will not follow you to the Antipodes. I have told and told my husband that his accusation is baseless, but he will not hear me. He is quite insensible to my entreaty. He is like a man sleepwalking.’

There was a knock and the lemonade was brought in, causing Alice to halt her weeping. She unfastened her reticule in search of a handkerchief, but found none. The door closed behind the maid and all at once the doctor was before her, a large white cotton square in his hand. Before she could take it from him, he folded it and dabbed at her cheek. He was now so close that she could feel the heat of his breath on her face.

‘Forgive me, but I must blow my nose,’ said Alice, taking the handkerchief.

She expected him to stand back, but he did not. Instead he put both his hands on her shoulders. She did not find his touch disagreeable.

‘Since your husband’s course compels us to be frank with one another,’ said the doctor, ‘I shall now vouchsafe to you the true reason for my departure from here. I have since the first felt an attraction to you which has made me quite blind to the charms of any other woman, for all your kind attempts to make a match for me.’ Here he smiled, and Alice could not help but smile back at him.

‘Oh, but I …’

‘Allow me to finish, please. Of all the faces in the world, yours is the one I prefer to see over any other. A day with you in it is for me a glad day. But by that very token, all the days when I did not see you, could not see you, were very flat and dull. By this logic it has been apparent to me that, short of seeing you on a daily basis, I cannot be happy in my present circumstance. This is why I had determined to leave these Isles. I had thought to take leave of you without stating my case; but I must – I cannot not speak – I must take the opportunity to ask you: since Mr Gale believes us to be united by a bond closer than friendship, why should we not now make it so?’

Alice was entirely flummoxed.

‘If you were to come with me to Melbourne we might commence a new life. It has long been my observation that you are in possession of a fine mind. In a new country you might begin again: you might nurse, or write, or otherwise occupy yourself.’

‘But I … I have George, I cannot take him so far away from his father,’ said Alice.