I stroked her hand very gently. I felt an answering stroke, and then suddenly she kissed my ear, sliding her tongue round the inside of it, which gave me goose-pimples. I thought it a very strange thing to do. The insides of ears seemed remarkably unattractive to me, and I thought that it must have been a very waxy experience. At least I knew that the ear was clean. 'Behind and inside the ears, dear,' my mother had cried, sternly, almost every morning, before she packed me off to prep school. I wished I hadn't thought of my mother just then. What would she think if she could see me now? Ange's kissing of my ear made me realise how little I knew about love-making. I wished the whole of my life had been different, but I knew that, if it had been, I wouldn't have been in this taxi now. When all too soon we arrived at the hotel I could see, beyond the lift, that the bar was still open. I clutched cravenly at the opportunity it presented. 'Would you like a nightcap?' I asked. 'Yeah. Why not?' She had a Bailey's, I an armagnac.
