She shook her head. “Isn’t important? She is, Joe. More im­portant than Harry even. More important than the job with Nick, more important than me. Or our children.” She laughed. “Earl’s Court, Gloucester Road, South Kensington – they’re not born yet, are they?” She pushed my hand away gently. “You’d better go back to your own children,” she said.

“Norah,” I said. “I’ll tell you the truth. It’s not as you think it is—” I stopped. The time to tell her the truth had passed: now it could only damage her pride irretrievably.

“Don’t say any more, dear,” Norah said. “And don’t worry about me. I shan’t do anything foolish.”

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you too,” she said. “Much good may it do me.”

“Norah,” I said. “I don’t want it to end like this. I’ll phone you tonight—”

“I told you not to worry,” she said. “I’m not trying to compete any more. I saw your face when I mentioned Barbara. That was enough, my dear. I can’t compete with that.”

When the brandy came she clinked her glass against mine.

“Have a nice time in Capua,” she said.

“I’ll be back,” I said.

“No one ever comes back from Capua,” she said.

26

26

“If you won’t tell me what’s wrong, what’s the use of my being here?”

I looked round for an ashtray and for the fifth time since nine o’clock stubbed out my cigarette on the floor.

“I wish you’d go away,” Harry said. He pulled the bedclothes over his face.

“It’s your room,” I said. I shifted uneasily on the chair which I’d pulled up beside his bed; again it struck me that it was the most comfortless room in the house, not in essentials very much better than the bedroom I’d had myself as a boy. The little pile of cigarette ends on the black lino did nothing to improve its appearance.

I pulled the bedclothes back gently. He turned his face away from me. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”

“You asked me to come.”

“That was three days ago.”

“Don’t say it again, Harry, please.”

He sat up. “I thought you’d be here when I came home,” he said. “No one ever told me you’d gone away. Nobody ever tells me anything. And then Granny said she was going to London and I asked her to tell you to come. And you never did.”

“I’m here now,” I said.

I put out my hand to cover his.

“Let me go,” he said. “I know why you didn’t come.” His face seemed to wizen with the weight of his adult knowledge.

“I heard Mummy talking to Granny. She said that Hauxley woman had her claws in you. She said you were living with her . . .”