If I was grown up in my love, I can hardly say I was in other aspects of my life. The following week trouble began at GUP. It was naive of me to suppose that I was hidden and anonymous at 19 Russia Road. When I had registered, back in the previous October, I had given this address, if not this phone number. The admissions officer also had my parents’ address. Max’s number was obtained from them and on two successive days my supervisor phoned three times. I had no idea Caroline Bodmer was such a persistent strong-minded woman. She had given me a very different impression of a vague preoccupied creature. Selina had searched for me—I, of course, being up at Silver’s or on the roofs—but the third call came at nine in the morning and, entering as she invariably did without knocking, she found me coming out of the bathroom wrapped in towels. It was difficult ever to get into the bathroom at Silver’s, there were always too many people competing for it. Fortunately Mabel had eaten her breakfast and gone out five minutes before.

“She’s holding on, darling. She sounded rather—well, cross.” Selina shook her head at my appearance, a gesture of Max’s she had caught. She herself was immaculate in a yellow linen dress. “You can’t go up like that. Max might see you. Oh dear, now what shall I do? Shall I tell her you’ll be just two minutes or maybe you could call her back? Yes, I’ll say you’ll call her back, darling, but you must do it. You must promise. Or she’ll blame me, won’t she?” This was exactly the sort of pointless fretfulness Silver deplored. “Or I could say you’ll see her at the college. Had I better do that?”

“I’ll call her back.” Just give me five minutes to invent something to say, I thought. “Oh, and thanks, Selina.”

“You’re welcome, darling, only the woman has phoned three times and the other two times Max had to answer the phone himself. You know he does find answering the phone very trying. Still, he had the opportunity to have a long talk with her. When you come upstairs you’ll remember he’s starting work now, won’t you? He’s doing his index and that’s fearfully demanding, so you must be as quiet as a mouse.”

“I won’t make a noise.”

“One more thing, darling. I don’t suppose you ever go down on the canal bank, do you? No, of course you don’t, but if ever you were tempted, remember that poor creature who was murdered there last week or whenever. She was beaten to death with a lump of wood. It’s all in today’s paper, it came out at the inquest. It used to be so safe round here.”