Nadya moved forward until she was quite close to Mary. She was smiling slightly. She said softly:

‘Are you not grateful? I brought you food. And I brought you back your man.’

‘You can keep him. I don’t want him, soiled from you.’

‘You suspect too much,’ Nadya said, ‘too quickly. It will not be a good marriage if you think he is in bed with another woman each time you turn your back.’

‘Take him! Marry him yourself. That’s what you want, isn’t it?’

Nadya was silent for a moment. She said:

‘He is a good man. He saved my life twice. He was in great danger. He deserves a woman who will be glad of him and who will still love him, even if he sleeps with me when he is tired and happy to be still alive, and a little drunk. But he did not sleep with me.’