and a young girl, and if you only knew how ugly and pathetic you look, pawing each other and making a vulgar display of how pleased you are with yourselves for having got rid of my sister-You're like a pair of murderers-They moved apart. Marigold sat down, looking up at her lover with a dazed glowing stare. «We didn't do this deliberately,» said Roger. «It just happened. We can't help it if we're happy. At least we're acting rightly now, we've stopped lying anyway. We want you to tell Priscilla, to explain everything. God, that will be a relief. Won't it, darling?»
«We've hated telling lies, we really have, haven't we, darling?» said Marigold. «We've both been living a lie for years.»
«Marigold had a little flat-I used to visit her-it was a miserable situation.»
«Now it's all dropped away and-oh just to be able to speak the truth, it's-We've been so sorry for poor Priscilla-«If you could only see yourselves,» I said, «if you could only see yourselves-Now if you will kindly hand over Priscilla's jewellery-«Sorry,» said Roger. «I explained.»
«She wanted the jewels, the mink, that statuette thing, that striped urn, some enamel picture-«I bought that statuette thing. It stays here. And I happen to like that enamel picture. These aren't just her things. Can't you see we can't start dividing things up now? There's money involved. She ran off and left the stuff, she can wait! You can have her clothes though. You could put a lot into those suitcases you brought.»
«I'll pack them, shall I?» said Marigold. She ran out of the room.
«You will tell Priscilla, won't you?» said Roger. «It'll be such a relief to my mind. I'm such a coward. I've kept putting off breaking it to her.»
«When your girl friend got pregnant you deliberately drove your wife away.»
«It wasn't a plan! We were just muddling along, we were bloody miserable. We'd waited and waited-«Hoping she'd die, I suppose. I'm surprised you didn't murder her.»
«We had to have the child,» said Roger. «That child's important and I'm going to act fairly by it. It has some rights, I should think! We had to have our happiness at last and have it fully and truthfully. I want Marigold to be my wife. Priscilla was never happy with me.»
«Have you thought about what's going to happen to Priscilla now and what her existence will be like? You've taken her life, now you discard her.»
«Well, she's taken my life too. She's taken years and years from me when I might have been happy and living in the open!»
«Oh go to hell!» I said. I went out into the hall where Marigold was kneeling, surrounded by an ocean of silks and tweeds and pink underwear. Most of it looked entirely new.
«Where's the mink?»
«I explained, Bradley.»
«Oh you should be ashamed,» I said. «Look at you both. You are wicked people. You should be so ashamed.»
I said, «I'm not going to wait while you pack these cases.» I could not bear to see the girl shaking out Priscilla's things and folding them neatly. «You can send them on to my flat.»
«Yes, yes, we'll do that, won't we, darling,» said Marigold. «There's a trunk upstairs-«You will tell her, won't you,» said Roger. «Tell her as gently as you can. Make it clear though. You can tell her Marigold is pregnant. There's no way back now.»
«You've seen to that.»
«You must take her something now,» said Marigold, kneeling, her bland face glowing with the tender benevolence of real felicity. «Darling, shouldn't we send her that statuette, or-?»
«No. I like that thing.»
