Pirrie ignored her. He repeated: 'Come here, Jane. I am not a young man, nor a particularly handsome one.

But I can look after you, which is more than many young men could do in the present circumstances.'

Arm said: 'Look after her - or murder her?'

'Millicent,' Pirrie said, 'had been unfaithful to me a number of times, and was attempting to be so again.

That is the only reason for her being dead.'

Incredulously, Arm said: 'You speak as though women were another kind of creature - less than human.'

Pirrie said courteously: 'I'm sorry if you think so.

Jane! Come with me.'

They watched in silence as, slowly, Jane went over to where Pirrie waited for her. Pirrie took her hands in his. He said: 'I think we shall get on very well together.'

Olivia said: 'No, Jane - you mustn't!'

'And now,' said Pirrie, 'I think we can move off.*

'Roger, John,' Olivia said. 'Stop him!'

Roger looked at John. John said: 'I don't think it's anything to do with the rest of us.'

'What if it had been Mary?' Olivia said. 'Jane has rights as much as any of us.'

'You're wasting your time, Olivia,' John said. 'It's a different world we're living in. The girl went over to Pirrie of her own free will. There's nothing else to be said. Off we go now.'

Arm walked beside him as they set off, walking along the railway line. The valley narrowed sharply ahead of them, and the road, to the north, veered in towards them.

'There's something horrible about Pirrie,' Arm said.

'A coldness and a brutality. It's terrible to think of putting that young girl in his hands.'

'She did go to him voluntarily.'

'Because she was afraid! The man's a killer.'

'We all are.'