In Search of Love and Beauty by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

it might be, to turn up so he could leave. Meanwhile, he was a much better handyman than any of the other, serious students, so Leo didn’t mind having him around, eating and sleeping for free.
    Jeff did not defend himself against the charge of subjectivity,but carrying on the argument inside himself, he got more and more excited and threw pebbles in fast succession; so that Natasha, afraid he might run out of them, began to hunt around to build up a new supply for him.
    She liked being here with these two. She admired them both. She had never before become friendly with two such people; it might even be said that she had never before been so close to anyone outside her own family. And sitting like this in the open at night, with stars tangled among the leaves and branches of the trees, was also new to her.
    â€œIt’s easy,” Jeff said at last. “Anyone can do it.”
    â€œYou can’t,” Stephanie said. Half turned away from him, she lifted her arms to do something to her hair, thereby pointing the profile of one little breast in his direction.
    He took care not to look at her but at Natasha, and he said to Natasha: “Come here, I’ll show you. Come on, don’t be shy. I won’t hurt you.”
    Actually, Natasha was not shy with him. Trustingly, she did what he said: lay down next to him, facing him, their two bodies glued together. He put his mouth on hers. She was not uncomfortable. His lips had a fresh taste to them, and there was also a nice smell about him, as of apples and hay. He put one arm around her, to hold her closer. She felt protected by him and safe and was almost sorry when, in conclusion of the demonstration, he let her go.
    He appeared to regard his point as proved and went back to tossing pebbles. But Stephanie plucked a blade of grass and applied it to the back of his neck; he continued to concentrate on his task with the intensity of a fisherman. “My turn,” she said.
    â€œSplit, will you. Beat it. Go on, you heard me.”
    Stephanie smiled to herself; so did Natasha, at the two of them. They all three knew that there was every danger of the test not working between Jeff and Stephanie. Quite often, when they sat here either in the evenings or when they hadtime during the day, they made love to each other. It was a very natural need that arose between them. The first time she had been there with them, Natasha tried tactfully to absent herself. “It’s okay,” they had said, courteously inviting her to stay. And it was okay—it was just one more activity that went on in the summer grass at the edge of the brook, among the birds and insects. And it was okay too when sometimes he came up at night and they did it in the bunk above Natasha, under the window filled with moon; and indeed the noise they made was preferable to that of the other people sleeping in the attic, so that Natasha was glad when their tossing and heaving drowned out the sleepers suffering from guilty nightmares.
    Leo called Stephanie several more times in the night, and the same thing happened each time: she laughed and he kicked her out. But he was never really angry with her, and she continued to be one of his favorite students. It was strange, how indulgent he was with these young students who came to him. He even waived their fees when they couldn’t pay him, and that was something really unheard of with him. In earlier days, if anyone pleaded inability to pay, he shrugged and said “Bad luck.” He wouldn’t even allow a postponement of payment—“The thin end of the wedge,” he called it; it was an expression he often used and in connection with other matters.
    A word might here be said about Leo’s fees: actually, he didn’t charge fees—he accepted donations. These varied according to what he estimated a person ought to give, and in fact the amount was part of the therapy. It usually took him some time to assess this