“Don't say we are separated,” she whispered, putting her still wet face close to his.

“No. We're mates,” he answered softly, with his arm about her.

“How could we ever keep away from each uvver?” she whispered.

He was silent.

“How COULD we?”

He answered aloud. “Amanda,” he said, “I mean to go round the world.”

She disentangled herself from his arm and sat up beside him.

“What is to become of me,” she asked suddenly in a voice of despair, “while you go round the world? If you desert me in London,” she said, “if you shame me by deserting me in London— If you leave me, I will never forgive you, Cheetah! Never.” Then in an almost breathless voice, and as if she spoke to herself, “Never in all my days.”

6

It was after that that Amanda began to talk about children. There was nothing involuntary about Amanda. “Soon,” she said, “we must begin to think of children. Not just now, but a little later. It's good to travel and have our fun, but life is unreal until there are children in the background. No woman is really content until she is a mother....” And for nearly a fortnight nothing more was said about that solitary journey round the world.