While she still has him, they go away to a warm country. She holds his hand while he reads, and she feels a tranquillity because everything is ordinary. She can afford the knowledge that there are long periods when he doesn’t think about her. But she also knows that the hand resting in hers will soon give it a quick hard squeeze to show that she exists for him.

Sometimes he turns and looks at her with happiness, and once in a great while there is uneasiness in the eyes. Then she knows he is thinking of his wife and children and she realizes with an icy clearness that he both loves her and is going to leave her.

As if he reads her thoughts, he puts away his book. “I can never live without you,” he lies to her in the sun.

She believes him until he falls asleep, holding her close to him.

She knows when he wakes his sense of guilt will also awaken his need for security and order, his loyalty to what he feels is his responsibility. What he owes to another. Beloved man.