On the west side of the island there was a small, sandy beach. Sarah saw it from the clifftop and thought that she could get down to it. It was an adventure. When she got to the beach, Elspeth was already there. Sarah had not seen her from the clifftop. She was sitting on a rock and she was crying. She was wearing a shawl round her shoulders and Sarah thought that the first Ellie Dance must have looked like that. Sarah did not know what to do. Elspeth had not seen her, she was staring out to sea with a mournful, melodramatic air. Then Sarah slipped on the shingle at the top of the beach. The pebbles rattled and bounced with a sound like gunshot and Elspeth turned and saw her.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said awkwardly, walking up to the rock. “I didn’t know you were here. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“I suppose that they’re all talking about me,” Elspeth said, “because I made a fool of myself at the sale.” She had not dried her tears and her face was red and blotchy like a miserable child’s. “I suppose I should be used to it by now, but the thought of all the tongues wagging still bothers me.”

She seemed not to expect any answer and continued:

“The police are coming in this afternoon to ask more questions about Robert. I wish they’d stop. I hate it.”

With another sudden change of conversation she said:

“You seem very happy with Jim. I’ve been jealous. I suppose I’m a bitch.”

“It must have been difficult,” Sarah said carefully. “All the fuss about the wedding. If you still cared for Jim.”

“Yes. It was difficult. It wouldn’t have worked, if we’d married. He would have hated me very soon. But it was nice to dream about. I suppose we all need something to dream about during the difficult times. I dreamt about coming home and marrying Jim. When I got here, I found that he was already engaged to a pretty English girl.”

“But you didn’t pin the note on my wedding dress?”

“No.” She did not ask for an explanation for the question. “ I hoped that you wouldn’t like it here,” she said. “ I hoped that you would leave. But it must have been horrible. First Mary and now Robert.”

“It hasn’t been too comfortable.”

“I wonder if I would have been different, nicer, if I’d been born somewhere else,” Elspeth said. “ I seem to have been doomed from birth. I was named after a girl who went mad and committed suicide.”

“I know.”

“It haunts me sometimes. As if that’s my fate, too, and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it.”

“That’s ridiculous. And it’s an excuse for making no effort to determine your own future.”