Diana remembered a story Constance had told her about a young American lover who couldn’t see the conflict between liberty and the pursuit of happiness for herself but had a good deal of difficulty with it in other people.

‘Jack wanted me to have a talk with Ted before I left. I was just too angry with him to risk it,’ David said. ‘I don’t blame him for being low and discouraged. Mary isn’t easy to live with at the best of times, and these haven’t been the best of times for her. But I can’t understand his ever entertaining the idea of leaving her.’

‘You do understand, don’t you?’ Diana asked gently. ‘What you mean is that you disapprove of it.’

‘Of course I disapprove of it.’

‘Are you a judge?’ Constance asked.

‘No,’ David said, answering her as if it were an interruption in the conversation he was having with his sister, ‘I was a radio announcer.’

‘Second marriages are often better than first,’ Diana said. ‘People are more realistic.’

‘Mary has three children,’ David protested.

‘Her chances aren’t that good then?’ Diana asked.

‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ David said. ‘I’ve sometimes thought there is no end to the number of ships she could wreck if she wanted to. She isn’t considerate of Ted’s feelings. Her own take up all the room these days, but surely there are ways of making her understand that, short of leaving her.’

‘Did you really give Mary away?’ Diana asked.

‘I certainly did, and I don’t want her back,’ David said.

‘But you already have her back, don’t you?’

David sighed.

‘Ted does know what you think surely,’ Diana went on.

‘Oh, yes. He told Jack he couldn’t talk to me because I’d kill him.’

‘What if you let him talk? What if you listened?’

‘I don’t think I could,’ David said. ‘And I don’t see what good it would do to let him think about leaving her, let alone talk about it.’

‘But, if he already is, not listening to him doesn’t stop him,’ Diana said. ‘Does he have a father?’

‘Not one he can talk to,’ David said. ‘Ted’s always been much more comfortable in our family than he ever has been in his own. He’s been like a son to me really. And maybe that isn’t as good a thing as I thought it was. I never feel fatherly about Jack.’

‘If Ted were your own son?’ Diana asked.

‘No son of mine would behave like that!’ David asserted. ‘Oh, am I such an awful prig? I feel as if I simply don’t know how to be a parent to grown children. Why do they need parents?’

The flight attendant stopped at their row. David ordered gin. Diana and Constance asked for tea.