‘As little as possible. There’s no need to have her upset any more than she is. Just tell her that he’s going to help us put some information together.’

When the conference broke up, Swallow retreated to his office. It was John Mallon’s custom with his family on Sunday mornings to attend ten o’clock Mass in the Church of Saint Nicholas of Myra on Francis Street. He would not be at his house until eleven o’clock. Swallow was glad of a little time on his own to reflect on last night’s conversation with Maria.

‘You’re sure about what you’ve told me?’ he had asked her when she had given him her news.

He knew the question was unnecessary, but it was his policeman’s instinct to want corroboration.

‘Yes. Dr Morrow up on Meath Street confirmed it this afternoon. I’m more than a month past my menstruation. He wants me to see a specialist at the Rotunda Lying-In Hospital. But I know it myself, Joe. I can sense the change in my body. And I’m nowhere near the change of life.’

‘Morrow’s a very good doctor, I believe. Why would he want a specialist? Is there a problem? Some complication?’

‘No. Nothing that he could find. I’m very healthy. But I won’t be a very young mother. He says this man is very skilled and I should be seen by him . . . just as an extra precaution.’

They had spoken in the past about marriage and children. He could envisage marriage, but children had been no more than a theoretical consideration. Maria had said she would want a boy and a girl. They had even talked about children’s’ names. But it was all in the abstract. This was a conversation he had never seriously thought to have.

She laughed lightly.

‘I’m thirty-five. Dr Morrow says I’m fine and all seems normal. But it’s early days. He’s not too concerned about my age, he says, even though it’s not common for a first child.’

‘Thank God for that.’

‘Well?’

‘Well what?’

‘What do you think?’

He fumbled for words, reckoning he might be slightly in shock.

‘I never imagined . . . never thought . . . of course I should have.’

He laughed.

‘These things happen, don’t they? So we’ll have to make arrangements, won’t we?’

‘Arrangements?’

‘Yes. I mean . . . we’ll have to get married. Straight away. Put a respectable face on it all.’

‘Is that what you think?’ she asked.

He thought he saw relief in her eyes. Perhaps she thought he would suggest getting rid of the pregnancy. There were people who could do that for her. Perhaps she feared he would deny the child. When he saw tears in her eyes he could not be sure if they indicated relief or disappointment at the lack of emotion in his response.