‘Sort of,’ Mike said. ‘I don’t paint or anything.’

‘I don’t think I’d ever looked at a picture when I was your age. I learned to in London during the war.’

‘Lots of doctors buy paintings, don’t they?’ Mike asked. ‘Most of the paintings I see outside galleries are in doctors’ offices … or dentists’.’

‘I suppose they do.’

‘Most people just don’t buy paintings, real ones anyway,’ Mike said.

‘They do cost an arm and a leg,’ Jack reminded his son.

‘Well, no more than a television, lots of them. I have this friend, Richard, who wants to be a painter, but he’ll have to be a teacher or something else and just paint when he can.’

‘That’s one of the reasons I like to buy paintings by artists around here, ones who are still alive,’ Diana said. ‘We have better ones than we deserve, that’s certain.’

‘In western Canada the human form is yet to be sighted,’ Constance said.

‘That’s pretty true, I guess,’ Mike said.

‘You know, I used the last opening line you gave me,’ Ben said to Constance. ‘“Canada is a country of hollow doors.”’

Constance smiled at him attentively.

‘I mean, you’re terrific with opening lines,’ Ben said.

‘They’re all I have,’ Constance said. ‘I have to make them do.’

‘Could I come over some time and just look?’ Mike asked.

‘Of course you can,’ Diana said. ‘Would you like to bring your friend, Richard? We’ve got a fair collection scattered through the house.’

‘That would be wonderful.’

‘This really is an art gallery,’ Constance said. ‘That’s why all the doors have to be locked.’

Ben and Mike exchanged looks while David clumsily changed the subject to the new Vancouver Art Gallery, a handsome conversion of the old Courthouse where he could still feel occasional ghosts of those on trial, an unfortunately accurate image for Constance’s own dilemma. The others in the room seemed helpless to rescue him; perhaps he was too much in charge of this visit for anyone else to end it.

Finally Laura did say, ‘Dad, shouldn’t we. …’

‘Be going,’ David finished for her, relief in his tone. ‘Yes.’

Though the boys themselves had installed the locks, Diana felt self-conscious as she unlocked the door to let them all out. She had really looked forward to their visit, and both Ben and Mike had begun to open up a little. If it weren’t for the damned locks, no one would have grown uneasy. They might have stayed a while longer and helped Diana fill the long evening. She had to admit to herself that a day, even Christmas Day, alone with Constance without so much as an hour’s break to read a book, was very long, and now there was nothing to do but watch the Christmas evening specials.