‘Oh.’ Displeasure crept into her voice. ‘It won’t keep for ever, you know. Even smoked. It’ll go off.’

‘I have given everything to the kitchen. They’ll cope.’

‘The Cheddar? They’ll freeze it!’

‘Helen. It’s all right, honestly. There are over three hundred varieties of cheese here in France, we’ll manage.’

‘I see. I needn’t have bothered? It was just a thought, that’s all.’

‘A very sweet one. Thank you. But this evening is Giles’s treat. There’s a quite special pudding.’

‘William, don’t spoil him. He’s been really a rotten little beast for the last month. Sullen, sulky, damned rude.’

‘Seems all right to me.’

‘You wait. Try and find out what’s bugging him, will you?’

‘I will. Don’t you worry. He’s having a tutor next week, until I come back to the UK.’

‘And when will that be? Are you hot on the trail? I thought you’d drawn a blank?’

‘Not certain. I’ll try and get back, as I said, at the beginning of June, a fortnight’s time. Okay?’

‘Okay by me. I just feel that you ought to get your house sorted out, Simla Road, put it on the market. Summer is a good time, they tell me.’

‘What about you? Won’t you need a roof over your head?’

‘Not really. Sooner you get rid of it the better. William, I won’t stay there, you know? I’m moving out as soon as this shoot is over.’

‘To your mother again?’

‘No. To be honest, no. Eric has a lovely place near Burnham Beeches … You can’t mind. You really can’t …’

‘I don’t. Not at all. You go ahead. We’ll talk lawyers in June, all right?’

‘All right. Yes. As I said ages ago, there is nothing I want. You take it all, your house. I’ll take just a few things, and my clothes. But otherwise … understand?’

‘Perfectly.’

‘Did Giles find his Zoo Monthly?’

‘I didn’t ask him.’

‘Christ! It was a surprise, in his bag. I wrapped it especially.’

‘I’ll ask him.’

She placed her hand over the receiver, the line went dead for a second, then her voice again, thin and rushed. ‘I have to go. I’m late already, Eric’s taking me over to a favourite restaurant somewhere. I must go. I’ll write from Marbella. Give you the address. Love to Giles. Do find out what’s got into him. Must go. Sorry about Saturday.’

‘You’ll really be late.’

‘This is true. Hugs and kisses. Bye.’ She hung up and I leant against the parrots and laburnum, weak with relief. Gone! How quickly love dies, how little one chokes on the ‘charcoal dust of passion’. My italics. All over and done with. On a telephone.

I replaced the receiver, pulled apart the accordion doors, went into the hall. Madame Mazine looked over the top of her glasses.