Rather than rushing out of the room, the housekeeper sought the address upon the person of the butler, and went straight for the second pocket of his waistcoat, she took out what appeared to me a small nail, though it may have been a little liquorice, which she deposited in the big man’s gullet and he sucked upon it and seemed better by and by. She fetched his lantern out from a cupboard too and gave it him, and he held onto it as if for dear life, his birth object. But as he sucked and as he clung on there in the quieting room, the housekeeper turned back to me.

‘Look what you have done, thief in the night, to the poor butler, look how you’ve upset him.’

‘She is a death watch beetle,’ he mumbled, ‘she gnaws at my timbers!’

‘We took you in, we gave you a home, this family loved you and cared for you, made much of you. You had a bed and you had warmth and duty and position, much affection was spent upon you. And what did you, in return, what did you do? You spat on our love, you cursed our kindness, you stamped upon it until it was broken. We are sullied by your presence, made ill by it.’

‘This house, this whole house,’ added the butler, ‘every floor, every room, every cupboard, hates you. Every door hates you, every floorboard, every window hates, hates you!’

‘You are a blood stain on linen, no scrubbing shall get you out!’

‘That’s enough right now!’ I cried, they’d gone on and I couldn’t stand it any more. I was trembling, shaking with fear but also with fury of my own, and I would not let them continue a moment longer. ‘You’ve had your turn and now you’re all spent. It’s my go now. I’m sorry I saw your precious marble place, I am sorry, I suppose, but there’s nothing I can do about that now, is there, it can’t be undone. So, there it is, I don’t need to listen to any more from you, I’ve had just about enough of it to tell you the truth, so send me back to Filching, do it, do it now, do it this very morning, I don’t care, I’d rather it in fact. I quit this place, I’m done with it! I’m sorry I ever came!’

‘She quits!’ yelled Piggott.

‘Sorry she ever came!’ rumbled Sturridge.

‘Yes I am, if you want to know. Now I’ll have my things back and you can put me on the train and that will be the end of it. But before I go, there’s something I need.’

‘She has terms!’ said the housekeeper, her voice very high.