‘For weeks you were sleeping with my wife and meeting me seemingly as a friend.’

‘Nothing seeming about it. It started with Carol when I hardly knew you – that first time you came round for drinks. And bear in mind that I sensed things about her which, for all the time you’d been married to her, you failed to see.’

Andrew said bitterly: ‘You’re very frank about your future wife.’

‘Yes. I’ll be frank about myself, too. Even if you had been my friend then, I don’t think it would have made any difference.’

‘No. You take what you want, don’t you, whoever it belongs to?’

‘A human being isn’t a possession. We’re all free agents, Andy. I’m as much against rape as anyone.’

‘They voluntarily make contracts. They incur responsibilities.’

‘You take people too seriously.’

‘You think that’s a bad thing?’

‘It depends how you look at them, I suppose. When it was a matter of immortal souls, and the risk of an eternal sizzle, one had to take oneself seriously. Aspects have changed.’