But Laura had not required confirmation. There was about Kurt something that reminded her of her father. The snapshots she’d seen of Peter as a boy, and he had retained the same slim stature and finely modelled features she was surveying now. Like Laura’s dad, Kurt would look youthful even when his mid-brown hair turned grey.

‘How did you find me, Kurt?’

‘It was not too difficult. I have since arriving in London to study seen your name in magazines – and have looked for your telephone number and your address in the directory—’

‘Lucky for you, and for me,’ said Laura, ‘that unlike my author cousin, I’m not ex-directory. But once you’d looked me up, what took you so long?’

‘It is not for me simple to explain that to you—’

‘Before you do, tell me what you’re studying and how long you’ve been here.’

‘I have enrolled in October for a psychology course.’

‘Why not in Vienna, where the great pioneers in the field made their mark?’

‘There I shall afterwards study further,’ he replied. ‘My parents have advised me that it would be good to spend some time not in my own country.’

A lad who listened to his parents! Laura told him that Janis too had enrolled in October. ‘She’s reading English literature, and is an active member of the University Jewish Society. Have you joined it, Kurt?’

He shook his head. ‘The friends I have made at college are not Jewish.’

‘Janis has Gentile friends as well, and they support the activities I mentioned. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be her friends, and she’d tell you it’s time you joined in them, Kurt.’

Jewish students were increasingly finding it necessary to unite against anti-Semitism on some of Britain’s college campuses. We can no longer fool ourselves that the bits and pieces we heard about before Janis was a student are isolated incidents, thought Laura. Monitoring of what was happening up and down the country provided a disquieting picture.

‘Is it at me you are now frowning?’ Kurt asked hesitantly.

‘Certainly not.’ But even on the joyous occasion having him here was for Laura, the menacing outside influences Jews in the eighties had found themselves having to live with were liable to impinge from afar.

Even a bride arriving at a synagogue on her wedding day was not spared the sight of those guarding the premises, often with walkie-talkies in their hands, and she would surely recall that along with her happier memories.

‘And let me say to you what I haven’t yet said, Kurt,’ Laura went on, giving him a warm smile. ‘You are welcome to come here whenever you feel like a home-cooked meal, or the company of your cousin and her family.’