‘I much appreciate the kindness that you are offering to me. And why I did not to contact you more soon – you are a well-known person, are you not? Who might perhaps have thought—’ Kurt brushed a recalcitrant lock of hair from his brow. ‘I am sure that you must understand what I am meaning.’

‘Since you put it that way, I suppose I do. Help yourself to something from the fruit bowl, Kurt.’

‘I have been thinking that the grapes look extremely tempting,’ he said, doing so. ‘They are not South African grapes, I hope?’

‘The only products of that country allowed in this house are human beings,’ Laura answered, ‘and there are some who wouldn’t be. It’s where my husband and his children come from, and you’re unlikely to meet people more against apartheid than they are.’

‘I am pleased to learn that we have in common more than our blood relationship.’

They exchanged a smile.

‘But I have not yet finished explaining why I had hesitated to telephone or to call on you—’

Kurt deposited some grape pips in an ashtray on the coffee table, his expression rueful. ‘One evening when my parents were not at home, I telephoned an American industrialist whose name is Kohn. He was visiting Vienna and there was about him an item in the newspaper. He was staying of course at the Hotel Imperial—

‘My mother, she is the sole survivor of her family, as my father thought that he was,’ he added after a pensive pause, ‘and for me to have only my parents – it was not a good feeling. Since I have not mentioned brothers or sisters, you will have correctly assumed that I have none,’ he said, collecting himself.

Laura, who took being one of the clan for granted, thought of all the times in her youth when she’d felt like telling them all where to go. Kurt, though, yearned for what he’d never had.

‘I was connected to Mr Kohn’s suite, but it was his gentleman secretary who spoke with me,’ Kurt went on. ‘After I had told to him that I am possibly a relative, he promised to pass on the message and that Mr Kohn, he would call me back. He did not do so.’

‘And if that Mr Kohn is perchance one of us, which I doubt, it strikes me we’re better off without him,’ Laura said.

‘It was my impression also. But I trembled to press your doorbell, after I had obeyed the impulse to open the gate and had walked up the drive. Today I am to lunch at the home of a girl who lives in Hampstead, and have found myself in the avenue where Laura Kohn lives.’

Janis entered the room clad in her bathrobe and towelling her hair. ‘Why didn’t you tell me we had company, Laura!’ she said, stopping short.