Dikon was an over-civilized young man. He belonged to a generation whose attitude of mind was industriously ironic. He could accept scenes that arose out of crises of the nerves; they were a commonplace of the circle into which his association with Gaunt had introduced him. It was inconceivable that any young woman of those circles would be unable to cope with the advances of a Mr Questing or, for a matter of that, fail to lunch and dine off such an attempt when she had dealt with it. Dikon’s normal reaction to Barbara’s terror would perhaps have been a feeling of incredulous embarrassment. After all they were within a few hundred yards of the house in broad daylight. It was up to her to cope. He could never have predicted the impulse of pure anger that flooded through him, and he had time actually to feel astonished at himself. It was not until afterwards that he recognized the complementary emotion which arose when Barbara ran to her brother. Dikon realized then that he himself was a lay figure and felt a twinge of regret that it was so.

Simon behaved with more dignity than might have been expected of him. He put his arm across his sister’s shoulders and in his appalling voice said: ‘What’s up, Barbie?’ When she did not answer he went on: ‘I’ll look after this. You cut along out of it.’

‘Hey!’ said Mr Questing. ‘What’s the big idea?’

‘It’s nothing, Sim. Sim, it’s all right, really.’

Simon looked over her shoulder at Dikon. ‘Fix her up, will you?’ he said, and Dikon answered: ‘Yes, of course,’ and wondered what was expected of him. Simon shoved her, not ungently, towards him.

‘Great hopping fleas,’ Mr Questing expostulated, ‘what’s biting you now! There’s not a damn thing a man can do in this place without you all come milling round like magpies. You’re crazy. I try to get a little private yarn with Babs and you start howling as if it was the Rape of the What-have-you Women.’

‘Go and boil your head,’ said Simon. ‘And Barbie, you buzz off.’

‘I really think you’d better,’ Dikon said, realizing that his function was to remove her. She murmured something hurriedly to Simon and turned away. ‘All right, all right,’ said Simon, ‘don’t you worry.’ They left Simon and Questing glaring at each other in ominous silence.