“But you must be crazy,” he said, for the third time. He was still flabbergasted, and anger was coming up to aid him. “It means – hell, it means dedicating your whole life to her. It’s a full-time job. You’ll have to learn everything from the beginning. And the girl’s a dead loss, anyway – how can she begin to talk?”

“Why not? They’ve done it with other people.”

“But it takes years even to get started.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“And there’s no need for it.” He drew a deep breath. “I can understand you wanting to give her a chance in life – though I think it’s a hopeless proposition – but you don’t have to get involved in it yourself. If you do, you’ll be tied to her for as long as you live.”

“I am tied, already.”

“But not like this.” He paused. “What about me?”

“How do you mean?”

“How much time will you have for me, if you’re going to act as keeper to this girl?”

Mrs Bannister looked away from him. This was the crucial point, and there could be no evasion of it.

“I know it’s bound to make a difference, Paul. At the beginning, anyway. It means I’ll have to go to school again, and carry her along with me. We’ll have to accept that.”

“I won’t accept it.” His voice was rising. “I’m tired of waiting.”

A man at a neighbouring table, sitting with a sulky, rebellious-looking girl, caught his eye, and called out: “You and me both. But what can we do?”

Marchant smiled briefly, enough for good manners, and then came back again to Mrs Bannister. “You know how we’re placed. We’re–”

“We’re lovers, and we’ve been lovers, on and off, for ten years. So what did you mean by ‘tired of waiting’?”

“I’m always asking you to marry me.”

“I know.” She smiled at him. “Dear Paul – you’d get the shock of your life if I said I would.”

But he was now very angry, and not to be charmed. “If you do this, Belle, it’s the end of us.”

“I hope not. It needn’t be. I’d like to have your help.”

“I’m damned if I’ll help you. Of all the crazy ideas … Why should I help you to make a fool of yourself? Do you think I’m going to hang about playing second string to a half-dead girl who should have been put out of her misery years ago?”

“That’s a wicked thing to say.”

“It’s true.”

“I’m going to do it, Paul.”

“Then I’m getting out, here and now.” He stood up. “I mean it, Belle.”

“So do I.” She was not angry, but her determination had sharpened enormously as she listened to him. In truth, she had had enough of domineering men, and of emotional blackmail, and of other people trying to refashion her will for her. There had been enough of all those things, in ten years of marriage, to last a lifetime; and no lover was going to reintroduce the routine … “I shall learn to talk to Esther – somehow – and then I’m going to teach her all I can, and bring her up properly. She’ll start her life again, where it left off at the age of ten, and I’m going to fix it for her.”