‘Yes,’ Diana said. ‘We drove around it once. It’s a mobile home park, but a really nice one with a golf course.’

‘They say it has a swimming pool,’ David said.

‘Down there they all do.’

‘We’re going to Borrego Springs, Constance,’ David said.

She gave him a smile of sceptical pleasure, brilliantly taunting, and he laughed.

‘How was the weekend?’ Diana asked.

‘I’m not sure for Ted and Mary. Mary’s inclined to say what I want to hear, but I think maybe she’s beginning to get hold of herself. Maybe not having me around for a couple of weeks will be another good thing. I sometimes think I’m too good an audience for the five-year-old in her who still wants to have a good cry and curl up in a safe lap.’

Constance’s expression grew fixed. David was aware how difficult it was for her when he talked about his family, for, no matter how often he explained who they were, she had no place to store information, and so it was the hardest kind of reminder to her of how shut off she was from ordinary human commerce.

‘D, what did you do with teenage girls who wanted contraceptives?’ David asked.

‘I thought you said this was Christine’s first date!’

‘She has a friend whose mother thinks any girl, once she gets interested in boys, should go on the pill.’

‘Yes, I’ve met my share of those,’ Diana said.

‘What did you do?’

‘Refused and then invited the mother into the waiting room while I had a talk with the daughter. I suppose some of them went elsewhere, but it’s my experience that most girls don’t want contraceptives. It takes away their last line of defence.’

‘What do you say to them?’ David asked.

‘She should tell them to give up men,’ Constance said, laughing, ‘but Diana is very broad-minded.’

‘I tell them not to have intercourse until they want to get pregnant. I ask them if they masturbate—a surprising number don’t. I tell them how. I explain to them how a male reaches orgasm. I explain to them the number of ways there are for having sexual pleasure without penetration. And I tell them that any man who insists on it is basically a rapist.’

‘But not too broad-minded,’ Constance added.

‘Is that fair?’ David asked, ‘if the boys aren’t given the same message?’