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Cambridgeshire countryside, far enough from Yorkshire to be safe. How well George had behaved. How gay and how carefree he had been. They had signed the book as Mr. andMrs. Byron because George had thought it funny. How the girl at the reception had blushed when Ruth laughed. A woman called Myrtle got terribly drunk that evening; her husband had been killed in Italy. She had been sitting on a stool at the corner of the bar and George had said ‘That woman’s had too much’. Ruth agreed, although she didn’t notice. Then Myrtle had fallen off the stool and George’s leg had prevented him being quick enough to stop a spaniel licking her face while she was on the floor. He had carried her to a sofa and afterwards helped her upstairs. And all this with his legs hardly healed. Ruth sat by in silent admiration . ‘And so embarrassing too, the way her jersey came up at the back when you lifted her, but you were so good, George.’ Goodness was a quality that Ruth admired.
    The night itself was a success.
     *
    Lifton in a fit of impulsive anger had refused a divorce. George saw that there was more than a little method in his madness. Had Lifton gained the custody of his children he would have been obliged to pay for their education. A task which the size of his income rendered impossible. Steven had been nearly five at the time. They had all gone to live in a London flat and Ruth, whose private income was considerable , had engaged a cook and a nanny. George had moved in first and the others joined him two weeks later. It was then that Ruth had realised that she was pregnant; she was uncertain by whom. For the sake of the child’s legitimacy , Lifton agreed to be the father in name. Besides, as Ruth argued to herself, George might not be with them for ever.
    Meanwhile George did his best to leave no grounds for this uncertainty. He decided that the time had come to spend his £ 2,000 profitably. He bought small pieces of furniture, china, and clothes and more clothes for Ruth and Steven. She in turn provided him with silk shirts and handkerchiefs , two new suits and frequent visits to the theatre. They saw few people but remained happy. George had discovered  her to be a rich woman while still at the hospital, and the discovery had increased his determination to invest his meagre patrimony with extravagant care. His recklessness after Lifton’s parsimony achieved the desired effect. Ruth sold the flat and bought a house near Sloane Square. George was soon installed with all solemnity as a permanent fixture. It was in this house that David was born.
    In spite of a life that exceeded George’s wildest dreams of extravagance, Ruth was not happy in London. She missed the country and hated the gossip. George, who then felt insufficiently sure of his position to object, acquiesced in the move to Cornwall and Trelawn. After this Ruth rarely came to London. When George left Trelawn to go anywhere he usually did so alone.
    They had been at Trelawn for twelve years now.

FOUR
    D AVID went back to school two days after his fifteenth birthday on January 20th. Steven had already left for Oxford.
    George was glad when the holidays were over. The last week had been particularly trying. Steven and Robert had waged an unceasing war on the rabbits, who in spite of myxomatosis were returning in ever-increasing numbers. George thought David distinctly cissy for his years and had persuaded him to come on one of these onslaughts. Quite often the rabbits were shot and only injured. This happened on this particular occasion. Steven had picked up a wounded animal by its back legs and had broken its head against the top of a fence-post with as little feeling as one might break an egg on the edge of a cup. The rabbit’s front legs went on moving first quickly and then more and more slowly as though trying to escape. Only after the fifth blow when its head was no more than a mass of bloody pulp did its legs finally stop. David watched apparently