THE FIRST THING that I had to do on Thursday morning was to go out and buy a wedding present for Sonia Capel.<br >This was more difficult than it may sound because I<br > hardly knew her. It was her aunt， Christine Appleyard，<br > who was my friend and who had insisted that I must come<br > to the wedding. I am not very fond of weddings， perhaps<br > because my own marriage had turned out not too well.<br > True， the ceremony then had been a brief affair in a regis-<br > try office with no one present but Felix， my husband of<br > the time， myself， and two friends who had come as wit-<br > nesses. We had all provided the appropriate signatures，<br > then the four of us had had a very good lunch together in<br > L Etoile in Charlotte Street， then Felix and I had gone<br > back to the home in Little Carbery Street in Bloomsbury，<br > which we had already been occupying for some months<br > and there had taken up life as before.<br > Naturally there had been hardly any wedding presents<br >and I had already begun to wonder what madness it had<br >been that had made me agree to tying a legal noose round<br >my neck even after I had begun to find out what kind of<br >man Felix was. I think it was an act offaith，; that if we<br >committed ourselves in what seemed such a fi~ way we.<br ><br >