‘It would be nice, ‘he said, controlling his voice, ‘to have a place in the country. You’re right. It would be a nice thing to …’

With a single movement she slid across the seat and gripping his arm with both hands, pressed her lips against his ear. ‘You’re not mad at me, are you, Lully?’ she whispered.

His spine chilled because of the closeness of her mouth, and he laughed, ‘No.’

‘Are you mad about Wanamaker’s?’

‘Why should I be?’ he asked.

‘You looked mad.’

‘I just didn’t think you ought to send hundred-dollar dresses from stores when you know we’ll just have to send them back.’

‘But everybody does it. I just wanted to try them on at home.’

‘It’s all right,’ he assured her unconvincingly. ‘It just seemed a little silly. You did look nice in that red dress, though.’

‘It was rose,’ she said, pleased. ‘God,’ she nearly shouted, ‘you got no idea what I could look like!’

He laughed with sharp joy and fright, for it was nearly a thousand dollars worth of merchandise she had sent home. And two days later he had had to face the same truck-driver who had delivered them. She simply paraded around the house looking glorious in hundred-dollar dresses and then he had to help her pack them all away in their boxes, and when he lowered the top of the box over them it was like burying something.

They drove on. ‘You’ve got very good taste, Gert. I never thought you could look like that. Really, like an actress. Exceptional taste.’

‘It’s what I pride myself on,’ she reminded him.

The road had climbed continuously and now the trees dipped away from the right side and there lay the Hudson far below them, the sun exploding in flares in the hollows of the water.

‘This is it, I think,’ he said. He slowed down and both leaned forward to read an approaching billboard on the left side of the road.

‘Can you see the river from the hotel?’ she asked excitedly.

‘No, but it’s a short walk. This is it,’ he said, stopping the car on the road shoulder. She turned in her seat as he had been training her to do, and looked down the road through the back window while he studied the mirror. Then with a roar of the engine he swung the car across the highway, pulling to a rocking stop on a narrow dirt road in front of the sign.

He could not read the sign without getting out, so he said, ‘See if there’s a diagram on it. I seem to remember.’

She stuck her head out the window and read the sign aloud: ‘Riverview Village.’ To him she said. ‘This is a homes development.’

‘I know, but there used to be a diagram telling how to get to the hotel …’

‘Oh yes. “ Riverview Hotel. Stay on dirt road keeping right.” ‘She pulled her head in. ‘Just keep right, I guess.’