After about twenty minutes the editor emerges from his office. He’s holding a piece of paper. Melissa has never seen such a thing, but she knows it’s a letter of resignation, demanded by the lawyer. She feels a desperate poignancy as she sees his haggard, defeated face. Her tears rise uncontrollably.

‘My friends, my colleagues, this is a terrible day for this newspaper and for journalism. The newspaper and the building have been sold and the new owners are closing us down. Twelvetrees Media Company assures us that there will be redundancy payments along union guidelines. I have been dismissed. Now everyone must quit the buildings, taking only personal possessions, and on no account removing any items of the company’s property. Cardboard boxes are being provided and they will be inspected by the security guards on the way out. I will be trying to speak to London and the union and we will announce on local radio the location of a mass meeting to protest the decision and to secure your rights.

‘I am very, very sorry about what has happened, but I can’t apologise for trying to run a story worthy of the name of journalism. Can I remind you of what Tom Paine said? “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” Keep up the good fight, my friends and colleagues.’

As he says it the editor looks mortally fatigued. His high-flown rhetoric seems to make the lawyer uneasy: he gestures and one of the security guards steps forward and leads the editor to the door. To a casual observer it might look as if he has been arrested. The rest of them place their tragically inadequate personal possessions into the cardboard boxes provided. Melissa thinks that the boxes are similar to those Lehman Brothers’ staff took out of their front door, before the television cameras, on the day that capitalism almost went down in September 2008.

Two days later Julian and Nigel take a suite at the Connaught. They don’t want to be at the bank. The bank itself, like the Parthenon, must float unruffled above this sordid business. Business as usual, keeping clients happy. Their suite is dominated by a huge vase of lilies and other overbred flowers, which give off a powerful aroma. The bathroom is scented by sachets of bath additives, soaps and gels.

Nigel is impressed with Cy’s people.

‘They’ve bought out the newspaper group, the whole thing. The company can’t believe their luck. All that lay ahead for them was bankruptcy.’