Directly Dipa was in bed she changed herself quickly, putting on a dress that she knew was becoming. It had a soft fichu of chiffon round the shoulders and a big rose pinned over her breast. It frilled out over her feet and had long sleeves that buttoned at the wrist.

The dress made her look very young and feminine and she arranged her hair simply because there was no time for elaboration.

When she was ready, it was nearly a quarter to seven. She peeped into Dipa’s room and as she suspected he was fast asleep with the bedclothes pulled up high round his neck until there was very little to be seen of him except the very top of his head.

‘How will he stand the cold of the winter?’ Carina wondered. And then everything went from her mind as she hurried down the stairs into the library.

Lord Lynche was waiting for her, standing on the hearthrug in front of the fire.

She saw the sudden light in his eyes as she came into the room and knew too that it was an effort for him not to go towards her and sweep her into his arms.

Instead he waited until she joined him and then they stood looking at each other, almost like two children lost in perplexity.

“You are very lovely,” he said at last, his voice deep with emotion. “In fact, you are lovelier every time I see you. This morning you were so sweet and puritanical in your plain blouse and skirt. But tonight I would like to take you to a ball in London and to show you off as being the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and to tell everyone that you belong to me.”

Carina dropped her eyes.

“But that would not be true, would it?”

“Don’t,” he begged. “Cannot you understand what I am suffering? Cannot you understand what it means to stand here and tell you I love you and know that I am wrong even to say it?”

“We have been through this before,” Carina said. “I will not ask for explanations. Cannot we be happy just as we are?”

“Happy?” Lord Lynche asked the question with a bitter note in his voice. “The Gods have given so much and yet they have tied my hands and sealed my lips.”

He looked down at her, and suddenly dropped on one knee at her side.

“Help me, Carina,” he pleaded. “I am not worthy of you and yet I beg you to love me a little just as I am.”

She resisted an impulse to put her arms around his neck and draw his head to her breast and instead said quietly,

“How can I help you?”

He rose to his feet and walked across the room and then back to her again.