‘He loved me,’ said Panty on a high note. ‘Better than he loved Noddy. He loved me better than he loved anybody. I was his friend.’ Her voice rose piercingly like the whistle of a small engine. ‘And I didn’t,’ she screamed, ‘I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t give him the ringworms. I hate my Auntie Milly. I wish she was dead. I wish they were all dead. I’ll kill my Auntie Milly.’ She beat on the ground with her fists, and, catching sight of Fox, screamed at him: ‘Get out of here, will you? This is my place.’

Fox stepped back hastily.

‘I’ve heard,’ said Alleyn, cautiously, ‘about Carabbas and about you. You paint pictures, don’t you? Have you painted any more pictures lately?’

‘I don’t want to paint any more pictures,’ said Panty.

‘That’s a pity, because we rather thought of sending you a box of paints for yourself from London.’

Panty sobbed dryly. ‘Who did?’ she said.

‘Troy Alleyn,’ said Alleyn. ‘Mrs Alleyn, you know. She’s my wife.’

‘If I painted a picture of my Auntie Milly,’ said Panty, ‘I’d give her pig’s whiskers, and she’d look like Judas Iscariot. They said my cat Carabbas had the ringworms, and they said I’d given them to him, and they’re all, all liars. He hadn’t, and I didn’t. It was only his poor fur coming out.’

With the abandon which Troy had witnessed in the little theatre, Panty flung herself face forward on the ground and kicked. Tentatively Alleyn bent over her, and after a moment’s hesitation picked her up. For a moment or two she fought violently, but suddenly, with an air of desolation, let her arms fall and hung limply in his hands.

‘Never mind, Panty,’ Alleyn muttered helplessly. ‘Here, let’s mop up your face.’ He felt in his pocket and his fingers closed round a hard object. ‘Look here,’ he said. ‘Look what I’ve got,’ and pulled out a small packet. ‘Do you ever play Happy Families?’ he said. He pushed the box of cards into her hands and not very successfully mopped her face with his handkerchief. ‘Let’s move on,’ he said to Fox.

He carried the now inert Panty across to the third flight of steps. Here she began to wriggle, and he put her down.

‘I want to play Happy Families,’ said Panty thickly. ‘Here,’ she added. She squatted down, and, still interrupting herself from time to time with a hiccuping sob, opened her pack of picture cards, and with filthy fingers began to deal them into three heaps.

‘Sit down, Fox,’ said Alleyn. ‘You’re going to play Happy Families.’

Fox sat uneasily on the second step.

Panty was a slow dealer, principally because she examined the face of each card before she put it down.

‘Do you know the rules?’ Alleyn asked Fox.