[Dark Saint Alaick]

"There is scandal already if Ewen and Gwennie Wren live together and are not married."
"East is east and west is west. Dockland to Connie is much farther away than the Riviera or New York. She only knows of Gwen as a writer of society gossip with a tendency to poisonous socialism. She keeps away from such things; won't allow them to be mentioned."
"What about Ewen's father?"
"If he knows or suspects anything he is too wise to tell his wife about it. The thing is this. Ewen admires you. If you encouraged him a little he would fall for you completely. If I discovered you and him in what we will call compromising circumstances and threatened an action for the alienation of my wife's affection Connie would pay up handsomely to settle out of court. You and I, happily reconciled, would be in clover."
Sandra looked at him for some moments without speaking. It would have been difficult for anyone to tell what she was thinking. In the curious world in which she had been brought up strict morality had been more conspicuous by its absence than its rigid observance.
"Say that again," she said slowly.
"I am not suggesting there should be anything wrong," Ossie replied. "I could not allow that. Heaven forbid. But if Ewen made love to you, as he would like to do, I see no reason why he or his family should not pay for it. It is just a little drama in which you and I would play our parts and it should have a happy ending. I believe in happy endings!"
"A sort of blackmail?"