They went into the pocket of the pea jacket I was wearing. Back in Max’s house I left the key to old Mrs. Fisherton’s on the hall table and let myself out of the front door. It brought me a small flicker of amusement to think of Max or Caroline finding that key and wondering where it came from. Then I had a piece of luck. I met Beryl coming in. One of the great things, the many great things, about Beryl is that she is never shocked and never much surprised by anything. To use her own phrase she “takes things as they come.”

“Made it up with the Professor, have you?” she said. “That’ll be her doing. She’s done wonders for his nasty temper, he’s a changed man.”

I assured her I hadn’t seen the Professor but had got in with a key I had no business to have. And then, with my heart in my mouth, I asked her about Silver. She could tell, she knew how I had felt, but there was no way she could soften the blow.

“I only know what his mum says, love, and as you’re well aware, she’s not a frequent visitor to these parts. He’s gone to one of those places in Africa as starts with a M. I said to her, I just hope he’s taken enough of that sunscreen, that’s all, him with his coloring.”

If she saw how this affected me, she gave no sign of it. She said a young couple were renting the top flat, she was the daughter of a friend of Erica’s, they were “yuppies” and worked “all the hours God gave.” Then she told me about the money and the people coming to pick up the notes, adding inevitably that this was all she knew and it was no good my asking because I now knew as much as she did. On an impulse I asked her if she had heard of anyone with a room to let.

“There’s me,” she said.

I went home first. To get my things and the £50 I had saved from my gardener’s pay and hung on to. After that was gone I’d get a job or go on the dole.

“But what are you going to do?” my mother wailed.

“With your life?” said Dad. “You’re nearly twenty-one years old,” as if I was already far over the hill.