Richard agreed. He saw there was no escape. It came to him that if Pye were to find out Piper knew, Pye would be sure to suppose that he, Richard, had been talking. In any case Pye must take it out of him. But he was tired, too lost to want more than companionship. And he did not mind what happened. He thought there had already been too much.

Three days before war broke out they had all been mobilised, mustered in a car park attached to one of the big stores, and sent off some hours later to the action stations they were to man. These were commanded by Regulars from the Brigade. Richard was posted to Pye’s station.

It seemed weeks since he listened in to the wireless, did not wait for his red telegram, and went off to this asphalt park, fully dressed in tin hat, dark blue uniform, shiny black gas trousers, rubber boots, with axe and spanner in a blue belt, as soon as he heard the announcer call on the Civil Defence Services to report.

He took a taxi. He told the driver to put him down round a corner so that he should not appear as rich as he was. But when he turned in at the entrance, there, in wait, had been Piper.

“I seen you, Mr. Roe,” he said, addressing Richard thus for the first time, “an’ if you don’t mind, you’re wrongly dressed. I wouldn’t let them see yer like that. The order is uniform caps to be worn, tin hat to be slung on the belt. Boots carried, shoes must be black. An’ where’s yer blankets, with grub sufficient for two nights. I should go back, Mr. Roe, they won’t miss no one, I’ve ’ad experience, we shan’t move out of this yard this night, not unless Jerry comes and bombs us out.”

Feeling like any schoolboy who has created a wrong impression on his first day, Richard immediately took another taxi home. He kept it waiting while he dashed upstairs to strip his bed. He gave the between maid a fit of giggles over the muddle he made tying his blankets. A minute or so later the cook lost her temper as, in turn, the girl lost her head searching for more string to make a parcel of sandwiches. Thinking he would be too late he had himself driven back right inside the car park. Piper saw him, but there was hardly anyone else to notice. Richard need not have hurried. He was one of the first.

As evening lengthened under a rainy sky, and more and more turned up in their deep blue uniforms, the melancholy light, as it failed, seemed to stretch long as grey elastic.

A balm he had never experienced heretofore spread over him, the blessedness of being without duties or appointments, in the midst of anxious muddlement.