Parents were his natural enemies, who regarded him with the eyes of a butcher watching a hungry dog.

But his affair with Pinkey had been full of surprises, and this was not the least, that chance had given him an informal introduction to Pinkey's stepmother and the furniture.
He had called again with vegetables, and when he adroitly remarked that no one would have taken Mrs Partridge to be old enough to be the mother of Pinkey, she had spent a delightful hour leaning against the doorpost telling him how she came to marry Partridge, and the incredible number of offers she had refused in her time.

Charmed with his wit and sympathy, she forgot what she was saying, and invited him to tea on the following Sunday.

Chook was staggered.

He knew this was the custom of the law-abiding, who nodded to the police and went to church on Sunday.
But here was the fox receiving a pressing invitation from the lamb.