I dragged my cases back and looked up and up and up. Max’s house is very clean, as if someone regularly washes it. One of the teachers at school told me that in Holland the people wash the fronts of their houses but I have never heard of anyone doing it here. The face on his house is a girl’s and she wears a kind of cap on her long flowing curls. The leaves around her look like vine leaves and the flowers like lilies. Up above that are another three rows of windows, the first row with arched tops, the other two just ordinary squares. Then I saw what I’d missed before. There are more windows in the bit of roof that comes over the top like a pelmet of gray slates. So the house had five stories, not four.

Why didn’t I notice the basement? Maybe because I always lift up my eyes to the heights. I went up the path, set the cases down, and rang the bell. Selina came to the door. I knew who she was. I’d seen her on television, as everyone in the whole country must have, so perhaps she didn’t think she needed to say. Anyway, I think she’s a woman who never uses people’s names, her own or anyone else’s, she calls them “darling.”

“Why didn’t you have a taxi, darling?” she said. “It’s much too far to carry cases.”

In spite of that “darling” she said it as if I’d done something wrong. Or I think she did. The trouble is, as my counselor told me, I’m paranoid. I see and hear slights, snubs, rebukes. Maybe because I’ve had so many. Maybe Selina was just concerned for me. She looked behind her, as if she thought someone might appear who would carry the cases. No one did. She picked up one of them, winced at its weight, and left the other to me.

I expected to climb stairs. I even thought they might have a lift. We went down a long passage. There was a door at the end of it and, behind the door, stairs going down. I followed. She put the case down the moment she got to the bottom. I think there were eleven stairs. I’ll count them tomorrow. Not that it matters. We were below ground and although it was bright outside and would be for another three hours, we had to put the lights on.

“It’s all yours, darling,” Selina said. “Have a look round. When you’ve tidied yourself, come up to the first floor and we’ll have supper. Max should be back soon.”

“The first floor?” I said.

“One flight above the front door.”