He turned his dark eyes on the girl whom he had dreamed of so often over the previous months. Beside him, at that very moment of existence, at the heart of torrential downpour, she was exquisitely real, and she, too, seemed content to go on sitting there forever.

It is easy to forget now, how effervescent and free we all felt that summer.

A young woman, newly wed, may find herself in the delightful position of wanting to do nothing without the company of her darling husband. She may indeed discover that she spends all her waking hours with her fellow to the exclusion of every other friend or family member. This is understandable, but wholly unacceptable, to society.

So this is how life was, she thought with a faint smile: It wore you down until you emerged at its wildest, most unexpected ends.

As she always did on any really important day, Penelope Hayes wore red.

Henry closed his eyes and imagined the sweet petulant woundedness with which she had stared at him on the beach. He felt a little proud that she could love him.

Her life, she realized, had all the charm of a steel trap.