She had promised him no such thing, but she took his arm.
They walked to the far wall where an old stone bench looked out over the ha-ha and the soft green of the summer fields. I found an excuse to move closer. There is a particular rose specimen near that bench that I have always admired, and I will confess I was near enough to hear—not clearly, but near enough.
I heard him say, "I have been thinking about what I asked of you at the wedding. Whether it was fair."
She said something I could not catch.
He said, "The pretense, I mean. Whether you found it objectionable."
A silence. Then her voice, thoughtful and even: "I found it very easy to maintain."