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the final phrase, as if at the
    last minute she regretted saying it.
     
    "Should I give it my pride as well?" he said. He carried on dressing,
    tying a tight little knot in his necktie. "I've turned a jobbing
    printer's into one of the thousand biggest companies in the country.
     
    My business is worth five times what my father's was. I put it together,
    and I have to make it work."
     
    "You have to do better than your father."
     
    "Is that such a poor ambition?"
     
    "Yes!" Her sudden vehemence was a shock.
     
    "You should want good health, and long life, and my happiness."
     
    "If the company was prosperous, perhaps I could sell it. As things are,
    I wouldn't get its asset value."
     
    He looked at his watch. "I must go down."
     
    He descended the broad staircase. A portrait of his father dominated the
    hall. People often thought it was Derek at fifty. In fact it was Jasper
    at sixty five. The phone on the hall stand shrilled as he passed. He
    ignored it: he did not take calls in the morning.
     
    He went into a small dining-room large one was reserved for parties,
    which were rare these days. The circular table was laid with silver
    cutlery. An elderly woman in an apron brought in half a grapefruit in a
    bone china dish.
     
    "Not today, Mrs. Tremlett," he told her. "Just cup of tea; please."
     
    He picked up The Financial.
     
    The woman hesitated, then put the dish down in Ellen's place. Hamilton
    glanced up. "Just take it away, will you?" he said irritably. "Serve
    Mrs. Hamilton's breakfast when Mrs. Hamilton comes down, and not before,
    please."
     
    "Very good," Mrs. Tremlett murmured. She took the grapefruit away.
     
    When Ellen came in she picked up the argument where they had left it.
     
    "I don't think it matters whether you get five million or five hundred
    thousand for the company. Either way we'd be better off than we are now.
    Since we don't live comfortably, I fail to see the point of being
    comfortably off."
     
    He put down the paper and looked at her. She was wearing an original
    tailored suit in a cream-colored fabric, with a printed silk blouse and
    hand-made shoes. He said: "You have a pleasant home, with a small staff.
    You've friends here, and a social life in Town when you dare to take
    advantage of it. This morning you're wearing several hundred pounds'
    worth of clothes, and you'll probably go no farther than the village.
    Sometimes I wonder what you want out of life."
     
    She blushed--rare event. "I'll tell you," she began.
     
    There was a knock at the door, and a good-looking man came in, wearing
    an overcoat and carrying a cap. "Good morning, sir, madam," he said.
     
    "If we're to catch the seven forty-five, sir ..." Hamilton said: "All
    right, Pritchard. Just wait in the hall."
     
    "Very good, sir. May I ask if you'll be using the car today, madam?"
     
    Hamilton looked at Ellen. She kept her eyes on her dish as she said: "I
    expect so, yes."
     
    Pritchard nodded and went out.
     
    Hamilton said: "You were about to tell me what you want out of life."
     
    "I don't think it's a breakfast-table subject, especially when you're
    rushing to catch a train."
     
    "very well." He stood up. "Enjoy your drive.
     
    Don't go too fast."
     
    "What?"
     
    "Drive carefully."
     
    "Oh. Oh, Pritchard drives me."
     
    He bent to kiss her cheek, but she turned her face to him and kissed his
    lips. When he pulled away, her face was flushed: She held his arm and
    said: "I want you, Derek."
     
    He stared at her.
     
    "I want us to spend a long, contented retirement together," she went on,
    speaking hurriedly.
     
    "I want--you to relax, and eat the right food, and grow healthy and slim
    again. I want the man who came courting in an open-top Riley, and the
    man who came back from the war with medals and married me, and the man
    who held my hand when I bore my children. I want to love you."
     
    He stood nonplussed. She had never been like this with him, never. He
    felt hopelessly incapable of dealing