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and purposes, that fellow Cassington is your father, not me. Anyway, you're married now. You're Langstone's responsibility. He can give you everything you need."
    "I've had enough of all that," Lydia said.
    "A wife belongs with her husband, you know."
    "This one doesn't."
    "And your mother? What does she say?"
    "She doesn't know I'm here. No one does. She won't even know that I've left home unless Marcus has told her."
    He smoked in silence. A cylinder of ash fell from the tip of the cigarette to the carpet. Somewhere outside a woman was shouting, "So where's it gone then, you bastard? I want it back." She repeated the same words over and over again: "I want it back, I want it back."
    Ingleby-Lewis cleared his throat. "I don't mind telling you, my dear, I've had a few ups and downs lately. Shares not doing as well as they might. Taxation. This damned government of ours. It's all changed since the war. If you want to live like a gentleman these days, you have to be as rich as Croesus. The long and short of it is, I can't afford to keep you."
    "I needn't be a burden on you."
    "But how are you going to live? Have you got any money of your own?"
    "A little. And I have a bit of jewelry. I thought perhaps I could sell some of it and that would tide me over until I could get a job."
    "But you've got nothing coming in on a regular basis?"
    She shook her head.
    He sighed gustily. "A job, eh? And what sort of job could you do?"
    "I don't know. Anything."
    "Can you use a typewriter?"
    "No, but I'm sure I could--"
    "Have you had any sort of job in your life? A real job, I mean?"
    "Well, not as such."
    "Not as such," he echoed. "Lydia, have you ever done anything useful? Do you know anything useful? There are millions of unemployed out there. Go into that library in Charleston Street any day of the week, and it's packed with the blighters. Why should anyone want to give you a job?"
    Lydia glared at him. "I'm sure somebody would. I--I know how things are done, for example. That could be useful."
    "How things are done," he echoed, and this time he didn't try to disguise the sarcasm. "You mean, whether the wife of a peer goes into dinner in front of the wife of an ambassador, eh? Which flowers are best for the drawing room in September? I don't think you'll find there's much call for all that. Not around here."
    "I'm sure someone must--"
    "Perhaps one of your mother's friends might take you on as a companion? Though I'm not sure your mother would be very happy about that. She'd put a stop to it if she could."
    "Then I shall advertise. It may take a while but--"
    "But if you're lucky you might find a position with the wife of some jumped-up tradesman in Turnham Green." He flicked the cigarette end into the fireplace. "On the other hand you almost certainly wouldn't last five minutes because as soon as you open your mouth you'd remind them what ghastly little snobs they were."
    "Father," Lydia said. "I know it may not be easy, but could I at least stay with you for a few weeks? I can pay my own way. And I could help with--with the housework, perhaps."
    "Have you ever done any housework in your life?"
    "I'm sure I could learn. Perhaps your housekeeper would be able to show me."
    Ingleby-Lewis threw back his head and laughed. "I don't have a housekeeper. I don't have anyone."
    She frowned. "Surely someone comes in and--"
    "No. There's nobody, Lydia, it's as simple as that. Sometimes Serridge's charwoman takes pity on an old buffer and tidies me up a bit but that's out of the kindness of her heart." He leaned toward her. "All right," he said in a gentler voice. "You can stay for a week or two. But I'm telling you now, you won't enjoy it. You're not used to this sort of life."
    "Thank you."
    "Mind you, I'll have to square it with Serridge."
    "Who's he?"
    "My landlord, among other things. That parcel downstairs was for him." Ingleby-Lewis smiled at her, exposing brown jagged teeth. "You had better let me have a few pounds for him. He won't let you