‘Gra-a-a-nd. Well, if you’re sure you’ll be OK…’

‘Yes, indeed. I don’t even know your name.’

‘Trixie O’Sullivan.’

‘I’m Martyn Tarne.’

‘Look nice in the programme, wouldn’t it? If there’s nothing else I can do…’

‘Honestly. I’ll be fine.’

‘You look better,’ Miss O’Sullivan said doubtfully. ‘We may run into each other again. The bloody round, the common task.’ She began to move away. ‘I’ve got a date, actually, and I’m running late.’

‘Yes, of course. Goodbye, and thank you.’

‘It’s open in front. There’s a seat in the foyer. Nobody’ll say anything. Why not sit there for a bit?’ She was halfway down the alley. ‘Hope you get fixed up,’ she said. ‘God, it’s going to rain. What a life!’

‘What a life,’ Martyn Tarne echoed and tried to sound gay and ironic.

‘I hope you’ll be all right. ‘Bye.’

‘Goodbye and thank you.’

The alley was quiet now. Without moving she took stock of herself. Something thrummed inside her head and the tips of her fingers tingled but she no longer felt as if she was going to faint. The brandy glowed at the core of her being, sending out ripples of comfort. She tried to think what she should do. There was a church, back in the Strand: she ought to know its name. One could sleep there, she had been told, and perhaps there would be soup. That would leave two and eightpence for tomorrow: all she had. She lifted her suitcase, it was heavier than she had remembered, and walked to the end of the alleyway. Half a dozen raindrops plopped into a puddle. People hurried along the footpath with upward glances and opened their umbrellas. As she hesitated, the rain came down suddenly and decisively. She turned towards the front of the theatre and at first thought it was shut. Then she noticed that one of the plate-glass doors was ajar.

She pushed it open and went in.

The Vulcan was a new theatre, fashioned from the shell of an old one. Its foyer was an affair of geranium-red leather, chromium steel and double glass walls housing cacti. The central box-office marked ‘Reserved Tickets Only’ was flanked by doors and beyond them, in the corners, were tubular steel and rubber-foam seats. She crossed the heavily carpeted floor and sat in one of these. Her feet and legs, released from the torment of supporting and moving her body, throbbed ardently.