They agree to drive to the country to surprise Alison and Robin. On the drive down Eric suggests Paul might win Robin over by beating her and using a belt on her. "Then when she has had enough, make love to her." Paul guesses that Eric has been Robin's lover in the past. Eric says she was 17 and living with them on holidays from boarding school. Paul says she must have seen Eric as a father figure as she never knew her own father. Eric says he saw her grow up and creepily adds that he saw the "apples filling out". Paul says he then "plucked the fruits". Paul seems worried and says "what really happened?" Eric says "ask her." On a beach we find out that Robin has been married and has left her husband in the U.S. Her mother thinks she now has gigolos, and we see her flirting with two young men on the beach. Alison defends her by saying they are just young men with little money. In another scene, Alison asks Robin if she was in love with Eric and Robin says unexpectedly "I hated him." She explains this as the fact that Eric was taking her sister away from her by marrying her. Alison says Robin had everything as a child and was ravishing as a girl; Robin asks her "you never knew how your ravishing sister was ravished on your wedding night, did you?" This was a middle-aged man she met on the beach. She says she cried and wanted to tell Alison all about it but couldn't. The two men arrive at the country house. Robin causes a scene stealing black currants with the children. Eric is cross with her, but Alison defends her saying she has been troubled. Later, Paul and Robin share a picnic and kiss. He asks why she won't marry him, and she says he does not love her. She describes intense desire, and Paul asks if that is how she wants Eric. Robin does not answer but says she worshiped him and he "took pity on me and gave me a crumb". But clearly she is messed up by this, so it was not, as she puts it (sarcastically?) "kind". Paul finds Alison smoking in the garden that night. He asks her advice on his relationship with Robin, and Alison suggests he cuts himself free, or love can be "like committing suicide". Next day in the kitchen, Alison is chopping vegetables. Robin thinks Eric and Paul should not be out together. She says Eric thinks all women are "bitches or objects of pity - like you".