There was a space on the sofa; I sat down and pulled Jean on to my knee. The record player was turned low, but the slow creamy voice seemed to fill the whole room, the words seemed to expand inside the head. She had to go and lose it at the Astor, she had to go and lose her honest name. . . .

Jean kissed me: I had joined the dancers now. I was in no-man’s-land, I was free. “Tomorrow,” I whispered to her. “Tomorrow.”

“Don’t talk,” she said. “Don’t talk, darling.”

5

5

“We’ll make a salesman out of you yet,” my father-in-law’s voice said. “By God, I never thought you’d bring it off.”

His tone seemed half-regretful; I took another sip of whisky and stuck my tongue out at the mirror on the wall.

“I didn’t think so myself,” I said. “I’m still a bit worried about the delivery date—”

“That’s not your concern, lad.”

“Just as you say.”

I stretched luxuriously. Until now I hadn’t noticed how com­fortable the bed was; it had been three in the morning when I’d returned to the hotel. Jackie’s boy-friend had given me a lift; he’d seemed impressed by the fact of my staying at the Savoy. Jean had wanted me to stay; why hadn’t I?

“You don’t have to see Tiffield again?” my father-in-law asked.

“He’s been called away to Paris.”

My father-in-law cackled. “Dirty old devil, you’ve got every­thing sewn up, then?”

“Sewn up well and truly. There’s only the delivery date—”

“Sod that. What the hell do you think I pay Middridge for? You’ve not promised them to deliver sooner, have you?”

“Of course I haven’t.”

“You had me frightened.” Frightened; Jean had used the word last night. We’d gone back to the kitchen again; this time we’d gone a stage further, the last stop before the terminus; it was bliss, she’d said, sheer bliss, but she was frightened.

“You needn’t have been,” I said. “By the way, I think they’re interested in HJX too.”

“We’ll look into it. I’m well content as it is. When are you coming home?”

“I’ll catch the four o’clock.”

“Sure you’ve no one else to see? This meeting tonight can be put off. It’ll be awkward; George is going away tomorrow. But you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

Not much I don’t, I thought. I have to go because I have to be inspected before they adopt me and most of all I have to go because George wants to make sure how he feels about it.

“It’s all turned out very nicely,” he said. “I thought you wouldn’t be back today. I’ll see you at the club, then. Nineish.”

“I’d better come straight from the train.”