After that nothing stopped him. The occasional murmur from me was all he needed. I didn’t listen to what he was saying, I was too busy gazing hypnotically into his eyes. It was Gussie who finally halted him, when she’d finished the chocolates.

‘Darling, if we’re going to Gareth’s, it’s gone ten o’clock.’

He was all contrition. ‘Sweetheart, I am sorry. When I get on my hobby horse, it’s like crossing a motorway in the rush-hour, trying to stop me.’ He took her hand. ‘It’s so rare meeting someone who actually understands what I’m trying to say.’

‘Unlike me,’ said Gussie, without rancour. ‘Let’s quickly do the washing-up.’

‘Absolutely not,’ I said firmly. I wasn’t going to have her finding Luigi’s take-away carrier bags in the kitchen.

‘Oh, well, if you insist. Can I go to the loo?’

Jeremy and I went into the drawing-room.

‘There you are,’ I said, pointing to his books on one of the bottom shelves. I’d taken the jackets off and dirtied them up a bit.

He looked at me for a second. ‘You’re very unexpected, you know.’

‘I am?’

‘Yeah. When we met last week I thought you were one of those impossibly beautiful girls, incapable of doing anything but look glamorous. Now I find you know how to make a flat look wonderful, you cook like an angel, and you seem to know more about books than any woman I’ve ever met!’

‘I aim to please,’ I said. ‘Have you got a cigarette?’

‘Of course.’ He lit one for me.

‘Gussie seems determined to get me off with this Gareth man.’

‘Gussie’s a romantic; she longs for everyone to be as happy as she is. I’m sure you’ll like him. Most women do.’

‘I’m choosy,’ I said carefully. ‘I prefer to do my own hunting.’

For the first time we really looked at each other, slowly, lingeringly, exploring each other’s faces, unable to tear our eyes away.