'You're not by any chance starting an infant, are you?' she said, turning her hawk-brown eyes upon me.
'No,' I said awkwardly.
'No, I don't think so.'
'No morning sickness or anything like that?'
'No.'
'Oh, well — of course it doesn't always follow.
I never turned a hair when Roger was born.
Felt as fit as a fiddle the whole nine months.
I played golf the day before he arrived. There's nothing to be embarrassed about in the facts of nature, you know.
If you have any suspicions you had better tell me.'
'No, really, Beatrice,' I said, 'there's nothing to tell.'
'I must say I do hope you will produce a son and heir before long.
It would be so terribly good for Maxim.
I hope you are doing nothing to prevent it.'
'Of course not,' I said.
What an extraordinary conversation.
'Oh, don't be shocked,' she said, 'you must nevermind what I say.
After all, brides of today are up to everything.
It's a damn nuisance if you want to hunt and you land yourself with an infant your first season.
Quite enough to break a marriage up if you are both keen.
Wouldn't matter in your case.
Babies needn't interfere with sketching.
How is the sketching, by the way?'
'I'm afraid I don't seem to do much,' I said.
'Oh, really?
Nice weather, too, for sitting out of doors.
You only need a camp-stool and a box of pencils, don't you?
Tell me, were you interested in those books I sent you?'
'Yes, of course,' I said. 'It was a lovely present, Beatrice.'
She looked pleased.
'Glad you liked them,' she said.
The car sped along.
She kept her foot permanently on the accelerator, and took every corner at an acute angle.
Two motorists we passed looked out of their windows outraged as she swept by, and one pedestrian in a lane waved his stick at her.
I felt rather hot for her. She did not seem to notice though.
I crouched lower in my seat.
'Roger goes up to Oxford next term,' she said, 'heaven knows what he'll do with himself.
Awful waste of time I think, and so does Giles, but we couldn't think what else to do with him.
Of course he's just like Giles and myself. Thinks of nothing but horses.
What on earth does this car in front think it's doing?
Why don't you put out your hand, my good man?
Really, some of these people on the road today ought to be shot.'
We swerved into a main road, narrowly avoiding the car ahead of us.
'Had any people down to stay?' she asked.
'No, we've been very quiet,' I said.
'Much better, too,' she said, 'awful bore, I always think, those big parties.
You won't find it alarming if you come to stay with us.
Very nice lot of people all round, and we all know one another frightfully well.
We dine in one another's houses, and have our bridge, and don't bother with outsiders.
You do play bridge, don't you?'