A contemplative silence followed and Marianne was briefly assailed by a sense of isolation amid the bustle. Aware of the pedestrians, young and old, going about their daily business, the traffic and its accompanying sounds, all about her the vibrance she had expected of Berlin and a brashness she had not expected. She was here for just a few days. Did the Jewish Berliners and those elsewhere in Germany live day in, day out, with the feeling the boy had put into words? Keeping it locked inside themselves?

‘What’s the betting,’ said Jake, ‘that there’s no middle ground in the younger generation’s attitude? That they either decide to make their escape, like that youngster has, or try to forget they’re Jewish and live accordingly.’

‘That last bit would be history repeating itself,’ Laura replied, ‘and if that was how Karin came to marry out, I’d say there’s a lesson in it.’

‘But what I suggest we do now, girls,’ said Jake, ‘is stop looking for significances and try to enjoy ourselves. It isn’t like my wife to walk by store windows without pausing,’ he joked to Marianne.

‘I was about to do so, love.’ Laura steered Marianne towards a display of elegant fashions. ‘Could this be where Karin gets her marvellous suits from?’

Marianne glanced towards a section of the Kurfürstendamm reminiscent of Oxford Street. ‘Well, she doesn’t get them from off those rails!’

‘Nor will Howard, now he’s in her father’s business,’ said Jake.

‘You may not have noticed it, but Howard’s suits are tailor-made,’ Laura rebuked him.

‘I was speaking figuratively, my sweet. Howard’s lifestyle has changed in more ways than one.’

Laura said as they strolled on, ‘He told me he got a shock the first time he came to Berlin and realized quite what a wealthy family he was marrying into, that Karin is what the tabloids would call an heiress. Do you think she deliberately kept that from him, Marianne?’

‘I shouldn’t think money entered either of their heads.’

‘And Karin,’ said Jake, ‘doesn’t wear her bank balance on her sleeve.’

‘Any more than you do, love,’ said Laura. ‘I too got a shock when I learned what yours was!’ she added with a smile. ‘But it isn’t just money we’re talking about. Like you said about Howard, it’s lifestyle, and we don’t live like the landed gentry, some of whom you could buy and sell. I understand that Karin’s family do.’

They halted at the Cafe Kranzler, situated on a busy corner, the pastries they coveted well in evidence on the plates of those seated at the outside tables.