‘No,’ she said. ‘And does it matter?’

She found in his love the healing balm she needed.

Demetrius talked to her as an equal, unlike the miller’s son who not long ago had tried to woo her with an eye on her hips and an eye on her breasts.

Demetrius told her, ‘Hold up your questions. They’re boulders,’ and laughing said, ‘Throw them down and don’t be satisfied with half-thought-out answers.’

One evening he asked her to tell him a story.

‘What story would you like to hear?’ she said.

‘You choose.’

She thought for a time and why this one came to her she couldn’t say.

‘There were two brothers, neither were rich nor poor. A letter arrived to tell them they had been left in their uncle’s will a tall house and a chest full of gold. The letter went on to say that whichever brother arrived first, it would all be his. If the brothers arrived together, they could share it between them.

‘The two brothers had never been close nor far apart and they agreed that they would set off together in the morning. But the next day the younger brother had gone. The older brother sighed and went to open his shop for business as usual. He’d had a night to sleep on things and he’d thought about the letter. Their uncle had never been a kind man and the town where they were to go had no tall houses that he could remember.

‘The younger brother walked there and did not wish to arrive looking shabby so the minute he entered the town he bought himself new shoes, a suit, a coat and a hat. Not having the money, he promised to pay the cobbler, the tailor and the hatter as soon as he had the chest of gold. He decided that as he was now rich he would stay in a fine hotel, and as he had walked so far he would have a meal fit for a king. His head filled with wine, he went to claim his inheritance.

‘He was pleased when he found the house for it was a grand building, though he wouldn’t have described it as tall. “It doesn’t matter,” he said to himself. “All this will be mine and mine alone.”

‘A butler took him upstairs and opened a door. The room was the nursery and in the middle of the floor was a tall dolls’ house and beside it a small toy chest filled with toy coins.

‘“This must be a mistake,” said the younger brother.

‘The butler said nothing. Broken by disappointment and having no money, the younger brother tried to leave the town without paying for his new clothes, his hotel bill, or the meal fit for a king, and found himself in prison.