Constance listened again and then laughed. ‘Nobody has to remind me of that, love. I’m senile, but I’m not crazy.’

Diana moved away, deciding to check the wine in the basement. She and Jill felt sorry for each other, Jill because she knew she couldn’t have done for Constance what Diana was doing and therefore assumed it was impossible, Diana because Jill couldn’t share Constance’s life, even second-hand, because Constance could not remember it to tell her, and that sort of estrangement from Constance would have been intolerable for Diana.

The wine had stopped working. It should be racked off one more time, according to Jack’s instructions, and then bottled. Perhaps they could all come over for dinner and then have a bottling party in a few weeks’ time.

Back upstairs she found Constance at her jigsaw puzzle. There on the shelf with all the puzzles was Constance’s timer, which Diana had left behind, thinking the buzzer might get on David’s nerves or embarrass Constance.

‘Here’s your timer,’ she said. ‘Would you like to try it again?’

‘If you tell me what it’s for.’

The phone rang again.

‘Will it never stop?’ Diana complained, already twice disappointed.

This time it was David.

‘It’s a curious state of affairs,’ David said. ‘I’m dealing with an irate husband who says it’s unheard of for a wife to desert a husband and three children. When I asked him if he hadn’t been thinking along those lines himself, he said, of course, he supposed everyone thought of it now and then when things got tough, but thinking about it, even talking about it, was a very different thing from doing it. After all, he loved Mary. He was married to her, wasn’t he?’

‘What does Mary have to say?’ Diana asked.

‘She says she hasn’t left him, yet. She’s just taking some time to think. She’s perfectly willing to have the children stop by for a while after school, and any time Ted wants to talk reasonably, she’s willing to talk, but not to shout. She’s tired of shouting, and so she should be, since she’s the one who does most of it.’

‘How long has it been going on?’

‘Five days,’ David said. ‘You know, it’s a great deal easier to listen to Ted than I thought it would be.’

‘He isn’t saying the things you were afraid he’d say,’ Diana said.

‘No, not at the moment anyway. I find his injured innocence a little silly under the circumstances, but I’ve been too similarly silly myself on occasion not to feel sympathetic. I do feel sorry for Laura. Mary being all sweet reason is even tougher to take than Mary in a rage. The glassware and china are safer, but you can think you’re losing your mind.’