Mma Mokoti saw her look at the doors. “No,” she said. “There is only my husband in one room and in the other there is a lodger, a young woman who works in a Government office. She pays us to stay here. That is all.”

Mma Ramotswe felt embarrassed that Note’s mother had sensed her doubts. “I believe you, Mma,” she said. “Can you tell me where I can find him?”

The old woman pointed vaguely in the direction of the town, and then dropped her hand. “Somewhere in town. He is staying somewhere in town.”

“But you don’t know where?”

Mma Mokoti sighed. “I do not know. He has come to see us, and he will come again. But I do not know when.” She muttered something else that Mma Ramotswe did not catch, and then looked up at her visitor, and Mma Ramotswe saw the clouded eyes, with their brown irises and their muddy, milky whites. They were not the eyes of a malevolent person, but the eyes of one who had seen a great deal and had done her best to make something of a hard life. They were the eyes of the sort that one could see anywhere, at any time, of people who had a life of difficulty and who still managed to keep their human dignity in the face of suffering and want.

She had no idea why she should say it—certainly she had not planned it—but Mma Ramotswe suddenly spoke. “I want you to know, Mma,” she began. “I want you to know that I do not think ill of you, or of Note. What happened was a long time ago. It was not your fault. And there are things about your son of which you can be proud. Yes. His music. That is a great gift and it makes people happy. You can be proud.”

There was a silence. Mma Mokoti was staring at her hands again. Then she turned away and looked at the shelf with the pots. “I did not want him to marry you, you know,” she said quietly. “I argued with him. I told him that you were a young girl and that you were not ready for the life that he was leading. And there was another girl he was seeing. You didn’t know about that, did you? There was another girl, who had a baby. She was already there when he met you. He had already married that girl.”