“Perhaps Duncan Forbes. He has been our friend all his life. And he’s a fairly well-known artist. And he’s fond of me.”

“Well, I’m damned! Poor Duncan! And what’s he going to get out of it?”

“I don’t know. But he might rather like it, even.”

“He might, might he? Well, he’s a funny man, if he does. Why you’ve never even had an affair with him, have you?”

“No! But he doesn’t really want it. He only loves me to be near him, but not to touch him.”

“My God, what a generation!”

“He would like me most of all to be a model for him to paint from. Only I never wanted to.”

“God help him! But he looks downtrodden enough for anything.”