‘I am sorry I’m not dressed properly to meet you. I mean, a tracksuit for heaven’s sake! But I have my swim about this time, well, about five o’clock. Every day. I do twenty lengths, morning and evening. I have a funny back. It helps.’

‘A funny back?’

‘Yes. I reckon it’s all the years I have sat typing in the wrong kind of chair, don’t you? It can be dangerous. But swimming helps. Do you swim?’

‘I do. Yes. In warm weather.’

‘Oh. We have a pool indoors. It’s always warm. The boys like it. They fool about there, but not at my times. I have priority. Isn’t that nice?’ She turned without waiting for an answer and, beckoning lightly with her bangled hand, motioned me to follow her. ‘Now you know why they are called french windows? Right? Because they open all the way down like, well, like glass doors. Right? And this is the Big Room. We call it that because it is big. It is the whole length of the house. And what would you like to drink?’

The Big Room was as hideous as the house. Brown varnished wood, a vast turkey carpet, at either end enormous marble fireplaces stuffed with dried flowers. Around the panelled walls, amber old masters – that is to say, forgotten people peering through years of cracking varnish, cows crossing black rivers, cottages in sepia lanes, simpering children holding wilting bouquets, a donkey panniered with flowers.

I asked for, and was given, a Scotch. I stipulated Scotch because I had a feeling that Mrs Millar might think that whisky was just anyone’s old whisky. She poured herself a Diet Coke. The bar was in a corner cupboard full of bottles and glasses; on the top a stuffed badger in a glass case. There was a sadness of unpolished brass dishes and dusty Chinese jars everywhere.

‘We never really come in here. It’s hardly used. My husband bought the house fully furnished, you see. He lives up on the top, and I have a cute little flat in the south tower. It’s very nice. I’m really lucky. When the buzzer goes – it’s right here in my pocket – I’ll take you to the hall and the elevator. So we just wait a while. Okay?’