Adila and Alec were going out that night with the Palmstiernas; Erik had taken a box at the New Theatre on St Martin’s Lane to see Richard of Bordeaux. A young actor in the leading role, John Gielgud, was the talk of the town, Adila said. ‘Come with us, Jelly,’ she pressed. ‘It’ll cheer you up.’ Jelly didn’t want to be cheered up; she preferred to stay home and get on with some work.

She had been asked to perform a peculiar piece that had only just been issued. The score had arrived fresh off the press from the music publishing firm of Schott’s in Mainz: a concerto supposedly written by Mozart aged ten, dedicated to Madame Adelaide de France, daughter of King Louis XV. It seemed, to Jelly, too good for Mozart at ten, but not good enough for Mozart any older. Perhaps it was by someone else, passing it off as the child genius’s work. She loved it anyway; just because something wasn’t perfect, that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth hearing. Now she had to memorise it.

Adila had a systematic way to learn music by heart; Jelly simply… remembered. Adila, who had studied for years with Professor Jenö Hubay back in Budapest, and later with Onkel Jo, was organised and analytical. Jelly, seven years younger, also went to Hubay, but never had another proper lesson after they moved to England. Her instinct seemed to carry her in the right direction. When little Madge Harvey-Webb, Adila’s pupil and Adrienne’s friend, said to her, ‘But Jelly, how do you do it?’ all she could offer was, ‘I don’t know, darling – I just do.’

Several hours vanished into the Mozart. By 10pm, her stomach was empty and grumbling. Wondering what Anna would eat in hospital, if she were well enough to eat at all, Jelly closed her violin case and went down to the kitchen. Adila and Alec would go back to Portland Place with the Palmstiernas for supper after the theatre; Maria the maid had the day off. Sometimes, when Jelly was home on her own – which was rare – she would go to a small restaurant on Fulham Road, but tonight she felt too tired and despondent to contemplate that.