``I hadn't thought of that.''

``No, nor had we to be quite frank. It was Beaver's idea.''

``You seem to have got me in a fairly hopeless position.''

``It's not how I should have put it.''

``I should like to make absolutely sure that Brenda is in on this. D'you mind if I ring her up.''

``Not at all, my dear fellow. I happen to know she's at Marjorie's tonight.''

``Brenda, this is Tony ... I've just been dining with Reggie.''

``Yes, he said something about it.''

``He tells me that you are going to sue for alimony. Is that so?''

``Tony, don't be so bullying. The lawyers are doing everything. It's no use coming to me.''

``But did you know that they proposed to ask for two thousand?''

``Yes. They did say that. I know it sounds a lot but ...''

``And you know exactly how my money stands don't you? You know it means selling Hetton, don't you? ... hullo, are you still there?''

``Yes, I'm here.''

``You know it means that?''

``Tony, don't make me feel a beast. Everything has been so difficult.''

``You do know just what you are asking?''

``Yes ... I suppose so.''

``All right, that's all I wanted to know.''

``Tony, how odd you sound ... don't ring off.''

He hung up the receiver and went back to the smoking room. His mind had suddenly become clearer on many points that had puzzled him. A whole Gothic world had come to grief ... there was now no armour, glittering in the forest glades, no embroidered feet on the greensward; the cream and dappled unicorns had fled ...

Reggie sat expanded in his chair. ``Well?''

``I got on to her. You were quite right. I'm sorry I didn't believe you. It seemed so unlikely at first.''

``That's all right, my dear fellow.''

``I've decided exactly what's going to happen.''

``Good.''

``Brenda is not going to get her divorce. The evidence I provided at Brighton isn't worth anything. There happens to have been a child there all the time. She slept both nights in the room I am supposed to have occupied. If you care to bring the case I shall defend it and win, but I think when you have seen my evidence you will drop it. I am going away for six months or so. When I come back, if she wishes it, I shall divorce Brenda without settlements of any kind. Is that clear?''

``But look here, my dear fellow.''

``Goodnight. Thank you for dinner. Good luck to the excavations.''

On his way out of the club he noticed that John Beaver of Brat's Club was up for election.

``Who on earth would have expected the old boy to turn up like that?'' asked Polly Cockpurse.

``Now I understand why they keep going on in the papers about divorce law reform,'' said Veronica. ``It's too monstrous that be should be allowed to get away with it.''

``The mistake they made was in telling him first,'' said Souki.

``It's so like Brenda to trust everyone,'' said Jenny.

``I do think Tony comes out of this pretty poorly,'' said Marjorie.

``Oh I don't know,'' said Allan. ``I expect your ass of a brother put the thing wrong.''

CHAPTER FIVE

``ANY idea how many times round the deck make a mile?''

``None, I'm afraid,'' said Tony. ``But I should think you must have walked a great distance.''

``Twenty-two times. One soon gets out of sorts at sea if you're used to an active life. She's not much of a boat. Travel with this line often?''

``Never before.''

``Ah. Thought you might have been in business in the islands. Not many tourists going out this time of year. Just the other way about. All coming home, if you see what I mean. Going far?''

``Demerara.''

Ah. Looking for minerals perhaps?''

``No, to tell you the truth I am looking for a city.'' The genial passenger was surprised and then laughed. ``Sounded just like you said you were looking for a city.''

``Yes.''

``That was what you said?''

``Yes.''

``I thought it sounded like that ... well, so long. I must do another few rounds before dinner.''

He paced off up the deck, straddling slightly in order to keep his balance and occasionally putting out a hand to the rail for support.

Regularly every three minutes for the last hour or so, this man had come by. At first Tony had looked up at his approach and then turned away again out to sea. Presently the man had taken to nodding, then to saying ``Hullo'' or ``Bit choppy'' or ``Here we are again''; finally he had stopped and begun a conversation.

Tony went aft to break this rather embarrassing recurrence. He descended the companion-way which led to the lower deck. Here, in crates lashed to the side, was a variety of livestock--some stud bulls, a heavily blanketed race-Horse, a couple of beagles, being exported to various West Indian islands. Tony threaded a way between them and the hatches to the stern, where he sat against a winch watching the horizon mount above the funnels, then fall until they stood out black against the darkening sky. The pitch was more sensible here than it had been amidships; the animals shifted restlessly in their cramped quarters; the beagles whined intermittently. A lascar took down from a line some washing which had been flapping there all day.

The wash of the ship was quickly lost in the high waves. They were steaming westward down the Channel. As it grew to be night, lighthouses appeared flashing from the French coast. Presently a steward walked round the bright, upper deck striking chimes on a gong of brass cylinders and the genial passenger went below to prepare himself for dinner in hot sea water which splashed from side to side of the bath and dissolved the soap in a thin, sticky scum. He was the only man to dress that evening. Tony sat in the mustering darkness until the second bell. Then he left his greatcoat in the cabin and went down to dinner. It was the first evening at sea.

Tony sat at the captain's table, but the captain was on the bridge that evening. There were empty chairs on either side of him. It was not rough enough for the fiddles to be out, but the stewards had removed the flower vases and damped the table-cloth to make it adhesive. A coloured archdeacon sat facing him. He ate with great refinement but his black hands looked immense on the wet, whitish cloth. ``I'm afraid our table is not showing up very well tonight,'' he said. ``I see you are not a sufferer. My wife is in her cabin. She is a sufferer.''

He was returning from a Congress, he told Tony.

At the top of the stairs was a lounge named the Music and Writing Room. The light here was always subdued, in the day by the stained glass of the windows; at night by pink silk shades which hid the electric candles. Here the passengers assembled for their coffee, sitting on bulky, tapestry covered chesterfields or on swivel chairs irremovably fastened before the writing tables. Here too the steward for an hour every day presided over the cupboardful of novels which constituted the ship's library.

``It's not much of a boat,'' said the genial passenger, sitting himself beside Tony. ``But I expect things will look brighter when we get into the sun.''

Tony lit a cigar and was told by a steward that be must not smoke in this room. ``That's all right,'' said the genial passenger, ``we're just going down to the bar.'' ``You know,'' he said a few minutes later, ``I feel I owe you an apology. I thought you were potty just now before dinner. Honestly I did, when you said you were going to Demerara to look for a city. Well it sounded pretty potty. Then the purser--I'm at his table. Always get the cheeriest crowd at the purser's table and the best attention--the purser told me about you. You're the explorer aren't you?''

``Yes, come to think of it, I suppose I am,'' said Tony.