“But why offer anything? It’s not a bargain. It’s just that we love one another,” she said.

“Nay, nay! It’s more than that. Living is moving and moving on. My life won’t go down the proper gutters, it just won’t. So I’m a bit of a waste ticket by myself. And I’ve no business to take a woman into my life, unless my life does something and gets somewhere, inwardly at least, to keep us both fresh. A man must offer a woman some meaning in his life, if it’s going to be an isolated life, and if she’s a genuine woman. I can’t be just your male concubine.”

“Why not?” she said.

“Why, because I can’t. And you would soon hate it.”

“As if you couldn’t trust me,” she said.

The grin flickered on his face.