Susan was asleep when I went into the bedroom. I took down the dressing-gown from behind the door but didn’t leave the room immediately. Her black hair, unloosened, fanned out over the pillow; she looked very young and I felt against my will what was unmistakably pity. You’ve used me, she’d said last night, you’ve used me from the very beginning.

It was true enough; for a long time now I’d not thought of her as a person.

Mark always listens, she’d said. You never listen, you don’t care . . .

I put on the dressing-gown and went out. I knelt at the bath­room door and Barbara climbed on my shoulders. She stopped me at the window on the landing by pulling my hair. I opened the Venetian blind.

“The giant made a big lot of pennies,” she said. “A big lot as high as the sky. And he runned up to the castle, he did, and he put the pennies under the castle window . . .” She tugged my hair again; that was the signal for me to move off.

“Go on,” I said. “What did the giant do next?”

“I’m hungry,” she said.

“Who was in the castle?” I asked, looking at Sindram Grange.

“The princess was in the castle. And they had strawberries. And there was roses. I want Sugar Puffs, Daddy, I do. And yoggy. And cheese.”

Yoggy was yoghurt, for which she’d lately developed a pas­sion. And cheese was bright orange Canadian cheese which she ate rind and all.

“God bless your belly,” I said.

“God bless your belly too, Daddy. What are you going to have, Daddy?”

“Do you know something? I’m quite hungry.”

I opened the drawing-room door and drew back the curtains. The negligée was still there on the floor by the armchair; I kicked it into the corner and knelt down to pick up the briefcase which contained Barbara’s present.

“What’s that blue thing?” Barbara asked.

“A new floor cloth,” I said. I took her into the kitchen and set her down on a stool. She stuck her tongue out at me.

“It’s not a floor cloth,” she said. “It’s a nightie. Silly Daddy.” She looked down at the briefcase. “Why for have you took that, Daddy?”

“There’s something nice there for a good girl.”

I opened the briefcase.

“I’ve been a good girl, Daddy, all of the time.”

I gave her the parcel from Hamleys. It was a small white poodle; for some reason she hadn’t any dogs in her collection of stuffed toys.

“It’s lovely, Daddy,” she said, and kissed me. “Now get me my Sugar Puffs, Daddy. And my yoggy. And my cheese. And my juice with ice in and straws.”

I put some sausages under the grill and went over to the sink with the kettle.

“Presently,” I said.