Cornelius, in the hieroglyphic robe, busied himself fetching what they might want, or what he might want. His bag of bang, a whisky bottle, a candle, two books. He held the books up. “King Lear or Gulliver’s Travels?”

They chose Gulliver, unanimously, and Cornelius, holding up the candle, began to read to them. (My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons . . . )

When he had read two or three pages he passed the book and candle to Jane, who passed them to Emily, who passed them to Lacroix.

“As you don’t appear to be going to bed,” she said.

He took the book and read to them. They were all lying down now, all but him. Cornelius smoked on his back, flicking embers, curls of fiery bang, from his cushions. The sisters lay on their sides. He noticed that they held hands for a while, held each other’s fingertips, as perhaps they had done as children. He noticed Jane pull a pillow under the covers and wedge it between her knees or thighs.

I am reading to the baby too, thought Lacroix. To Thorpe’s homunculus.

He read. The wax thickened on his fingertips. When the moon had sunk below the boathouse gable he shut the book, paused, then blew out the candle. He fancied they were all asleep now. They lay very still, dark forms sunk in lighter air. It made him uneasy that he could not hear their breathing, though he knew it was just his deafness.

He took off his waistcoat, got beneath the covers and lay on his back staring up at the faintness of stars. The novelty of it! Not the novelty of sleeping out—Cornelius was right of course, he knew all about that, had bivouacked across the Peninsula in tents that kept out neither rain nor cold, had slept many nights in the open with nothing but his greatcoat (his legs thrust through the sleeves). But to lie out as a kind of game, with all their bedding. Men and women muddled together! Was this how the community behaved? The Thorpians, the Phyrronists? It would be something to tell Lucy about. Something to scandalise her husband with. Or did Wesleyans not trouble themselves with such things? He was not entirely sure what they believed, other than they were more likely to pass through the eye of a needle than Unitarians or Anabaptists.