Snowy chuckled. ‘You just described her as being sweet, willing and good-natured,’ he said reprovingly. ‘If she’s all of those things then she’s unlikely to throw a fit just because you’re ten or fifteen minutes late.’

Tappy snorted. ‘Ten or fifteen minutes late?’ he said scornfully. ‘More like a couple of hours. If there’s something seriously wrong with the engine they’ll have to send for another and that can take hours, as I know. It’s all very well for you, you didn’t tell anyone you were coming. Must be the wisdom of the ancient . . . So why are you older than me?’

‘Deferred,’ Snowy said briefly. He had learned not to say ‘deferred whilst taking my degree’, because if he did so the fellers were apt to think him conceited.

But Tappy merely nodded. ‘Oh well, at least I gorrit over early,’ he observed. ‘I guess the pair of us will be searchin’ for a job, but I’m not too worried. When I joined I was pretty wet behind the lug’oles. I couldn’t drive, hadn’t read a book since I left school and didn’t know a spark plug from a dipstick, but now I’m a fully trained motor mechanic, and I reckon there’ll always be a place for one of them, don’t you think?’

Snowy agreed, and the rest of the journey was enlivened by a discussion of the various jobs which might or might not be on offer to a motor mechanic who could also drive any vehicle from the largest to the smallest. But as they neared their destination they both fell silent and Snowy realised, with a stab of dismay, that when he thought about Tess, a teaching post, marriage and, later, children, the picture of Tess had become so faint that it was almost unrecognisable. The fact that he had thought Lyana was like her was a case in point. At the very beginning of their friendship, he recalled now, he had been attracted by her resemblance to Tess; but was she really like Tess or was it just his imagination? He knew their characters were totally dissimilar . . . but then he realised he could not even say that. He had been seeing Lyana for a few weeks and he had not seen Tess for two years. Why should he assume that she had not changed when he was well aware of the changes in himself? He told himself that he was looking forward to seeing Tess again and was just trying to remember which of the presents carefully packed away in his kit bag were for her when his companion spoke. ‘Tell you what, mate, I’m not sure I want to get hitched to young Angie after all. Wish I were as certain she were the only girl for me as you are about your Tess. But Angie’s been writing to me ever since I was sent out to Malaya. She’s not been with another feller . . .’

‘How do you know? You’ve only got her word for it,’ Snowy said, but Tappy shook his head.