‘The only advice I can give you is to accept Marianne the way she is. Let me add, though, that if she marries you, you’ll be getting a rare gem.’

For the remainder of the half-hour they spent together they chatted, like the strangers they were, about the ghost still stalking Wall Street after the crash, Mr Gorbachev’s ‘glasnost’, and the implications of the Holocaust Memorial in London having been defaced.

It was the personal topic they had briefly discussed that remained with Simon after Ronald’s departure and allowed him no sleep that night. He had not needed telling that Marianne was a rare gem. But how was he now to prove how highly he valued her? And that there was more to the man he was than she supposed. That, though, he must first prove to himself.

Chapter Fourteen

Though Ronald had called Marianne to thank her for the tea, she had not heard from Simon. Christmas, which they had anticipated spending together in idyllic surroundings, came and went without a word from him.

New Year’s Eve too, for which Marianne had refused all invitations in order to remain by the telephone, hoping that Simon might see the beginning of another year as a good time to set things right between them.

After two more weeks had slipped by without his contacting her, her own hope of setting things right began to fade. Why had she let love put her at the mercy of a man! She was old enough to know better.

Marianne could not have known that Simon had not called her lest she hang up on him and had gone to spend some time at his sister’s home in New England, hoping that the quietude of surroundings less frenetic than New York and London would settle his nerves and help him think things out.

Meanwhile Matthew had survived to return home, and Janis and Kurt had announced their engagement. They had not done so until Matthew was pronounced out of danger and on the day he was discharged from hospital had gone immediately to let him congratulate them. Marianne was present when that moving scene took place, Janis and Kurt as radiant as young lovers were known to be, their presence lighting up Matthew’s sickroom. And he with a smile on his face like the splendid actor he still was.

The almonds together with the raisins once again, Marianne had thought. And she herself not going short of the former right now.