Mrs Bradley, to her discomfort, was aware that she had conceived an instinctive dislike of her host. It was a feeling with which she was seldom troubled. Her dislikes were comparatively few, for she had a well-trained mind and a philosophical temperament, and a long succession of loathsomely egocentric patients had encouraged in her, in self-defence, a good-humoured tolerance of most of her fellow-creatures. But, in the present case, some female corpuscles, as it were, rose in revolt against something which they recognized in Tiny Fullalove. She had experienced the feeling once or twice before, and, in such cases, instinct had invariably proved reliable. There was a wife-poisoner, she remembered … a charming man in the opinion of everybody but Mrs Bradley. Even his unfortunate wife had adored him. He had poisoned her for her money …

‘What do you think of Tiny?’ Deborah demanded on the way back. She and Mrs Bradley had gone on ahead, leaving Jonathan to wait for Bill whom they had seen crossing the fields.

‘What do you?’ enquired Mrs Bradley.

‘Oh, that’s not fair! I asked you first.’

‘It isn’t fair to ask me what I think of a person I’ve met for the first time, is it?’

‘I’m so glad,’ said Deborah inconsequently.

‘What about?’

‘I know now that you don’t like him a bit. And I don’t, either.’

‘Any reason?’

‘Yes,’ said Deborah, setting her jaw. ‘I have a very good reason. But it’s a reason I daren’t tell Jon. Anyhow, it only happened once, and it certainly won’t happen again. I’ve settled that. I detest men who can’t behave themselves at his age.’

‘Ah,’ said Mrs Bradley, nodding. ‘I’m glad you haven’t told Jon.’

‘Why do you say that?’ enquired Deborah, struck by something in Mrs Bradley’s tone.

‘I shouldn’t like my favourite nephew to be had up for causing grievous bodily harm. Jonathan is a quick-tempered man and very strong.’

‘It’s very odd that men can like men, and women can like women, whom the other sex can’t stand,’ pursued Deborah. Mrs Bradley agreed. She pointed out, however, that men could like women and women men whom their own sex could see through at the very first meeting, and that that was an odd thing, too.

‘What about the cousin Bill?’ she enquired. Deborah was again prepared to champion Bill.