“Would you like me to put on black streamers?”

“Not at all. I like you as you are.”

“I wonder if you really do, Rafe.”

“I adore you.”

Alicia shook her head.

“You don’t adore anyone. You love yourself and Tanfield. You like Dale – you don’t like Lisle. And sometimes I think you hate me.”

He slipped an arm around her waist, brought his lips close to her ear, and said in a low, seductive voice,

“You don’t believe any of that really.”

“Don’t I? I think it’s all true.”

He put his cheek against hers.

“Darling!”

She said, “You hate me – really.”

“Yes -like this.”

She pulled away from him angrily and then burst out laughing.

“You like making love to me because it’s quite safe. I wonder what you’d do if I suddenly fell into your arms.”

“Try!”

“Too public.” She laughed again. “You are a fool, Rafe! Some day, you know, you are going to be taken seriously, and you won’t like that at all.”

A curious expression passed over his face.

“All right, let’s make a start here and now. In sober earnest, why do you say I don’t like Lisle?”

She said in a lazy, teasing voice,

“Because you don’t, darling.”

The expression deepened. It was quite evidently distress.

“But I do – I like her awfully. I’d want to like Dale’s wife whoever she was, but I’d like Lisle if she wasn’t his wife at all. She’s my type on the face of it, fair and tall. Why shouldn’t I like her?”

“Because she doesn’t like Tanfield,” said Alicia.

Rafe laughed at her.

“Well, nor do I – so that’s a bond, anyhow.”

Alicia nodded.

“You don’t like Tanfield – yes, that’s true – you love it.”

He shook his head.

“I suppose I did – when I was a kid. A good big lump of masonry like that is the sort of thing a kid understands. One gets a bit more practical as one gets older. No one wants a place this size nowadays – it’s just asking for bankruptcy.