‘Very well, I’m so bemused and puzzled, I don’t know, I give up. My house is falling about my ears. I’ll do whatever you think best, Roderick.’

‘You need say very little.’ He went into details. She listened attentively and repeated his instructions. When that was over he rose and looked down at her. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘It’s no good my trying to make light of this. It is a very upsetting business for you. But take heart of grace. Bridget need not know, although I think if I were you I should tell her. She’s got plenty of courage and the moderns don’t make nearly such heavy weather of that sort of thing as we did. My niece Sarah prattles away about people born in and out of wedlock as if it was a fifty-fifty chance. Upon my word, Evelyn, I wouldn’t be surprised if your daughter found a certain amount of romantic satisfaction in the story you have been at such pains to hide from her.’

‘That would be almost funny, wouldn’t it?’ Lady Carrados looked into Alleyn’s compassionate eyes. She reached out her hand and he took it firmly between both of his.

‘Roderick,’ she said, ‘how old are you?’

‘Forty-three, my dear.’

‘I’m nearly forty,’ and absent-mindedly she added, as women do: ‘Isn’t it awful?’

‘Dreadful,’ agreed Alleyn, smiling at her.

‘Why haven’t you married?’

‘My mother says she tried to make a match of it between you and me. But Paddy O’Brien came along and I hadn’t a chance.’

‘That seems odd, now, doesn’t it? If it’s true. I don’t remember that you ever paid me any particular attention.’

He saw that she had reached the lull in the sensibilities that sometimes follows extreme emotional tension. She spoke idly with an echo of her customary gentle gaiety. She sounded as if her mind had gone as limp as the thin hand he still held.

‘You ought to marry,’ she said vaguely and added: ‘I must go.’

‘I’m coming down. I’ll see you to your car.’

As she drove away he stood looking after her for a second or two, and then shook his head doubtfully and set out for Cheyne Walk.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Interlude for Love