Lights suddenly came on above and below us. We were flooded with light, caught ascending a staircase with our shoes in our hands, clearly intent on performing some act by stealth. The people on the landing above us, the first we saw, we had never seen previously. It was apparent they had been the Nylands’ guests for the evening. The Nylands were just inside their front door, with a black-and-white abstract for a backdrop, saying good night. We hadn’t realized how late it was. People of our age never do realize how late it is. I doubt if either of us was wearing a watch. A clock inside the flat ominously struck eleven as Mrs. Nyland came out onto the landing and asked us once more what we thought we were doing, this time not prefacing her question with an “Oh, excuse me!”

“Visiting our friends.” Silver’s voice was very abrupt. I wondered if he had gone too far when he said, “If you don’t like it, I suggest you call Mr. Robinson in the south of France. He’ll vouch for them and us.”

“What I don’t like is your tone—” Mrs. Nyland began but she was cut short by her husband’s sharp utterance of her name.

“Vivien!”

“You can put your shoes on now. We know you’re here. You needn’t creep about like cat burglars.”

“Vivien, that’s enough!”

The departing guests were embarrassed. I sensed a full-scale row breaking out between the Nylands after the rest of us had gone and their door was shut. No one said any more. We advanced up the next flight, still carrying our shoes, feeling foolish. The lights went out as suddenly as they had come on and I nearly fell over backward down the stairs. I clutched Silver and whispered that maybe we were too late and they’d have gone to bed but he said to go on, they’d rather get up to open the door than not see us at all.

Perhaps he was right but there was very little sign of it in Andrew’s manner. He was fully dressed, though complaining he had been just about to go to bed. Alison, he said, was asleep and so was Jason. I was sure this was true of Jason but doubted if Alison ever slept much these nights, and the thought had barely taken form in my mind when she came out of their bedroom in a dressing gown whose sash tied her waist so tightly that it looked as narrow as my thigh.

We sat in the living room. Silver said we’d be bringing Morna to meet them the next day. Then he asked Andrew for the money they owed him. It was nearly £5,000, not including the cost of Morna’s return ticket. Andrew again came up with his excuse that the money was in Jason’s room.