The novel opens with a conversation between a young woman and a young man. The young man asks the woman why she hasn't sent him a birthday present. The woman replies that she's been waiting for five years for the man to tell her that he's going to be unable to deliver the gift. She asks the young man why he didn't tell her sooner. The man replies that it's because they've been together for so long that he doesn't know how to respond to her questions. He also says that they're getting more and more apart, and that he wants to marry around the age of 30. The girl says that she never said that she doesn1t want to marry if the man isn1t planning on marrying her, and she asks why he hasn1t told her that they are growing apart. She also asks why they haven1t talked about marriage before, and he says that he stopped bringing it up because they were fighting about it. He tells her that there are solicitors who come to the office once a month, so they shouldn1t waste their no trespassing no trespassing. He says that since his first impression of the man was good, he1s sure that he1d be happy to marry him. He then asks why the first floor of the building is too small, and the second floor is too big. He points out that changing one thing can lead to changing another, and it can be more difficult to start over. He asks the girl if she1d like to marry the man, but she says she1s afraid of regretting her decision. She tells him that she would have liked to have married him, but that he was a diversion, a shiny new toy, to be discarded