‘You’re letting your imagination carry you away! Marriage hasn’t been mentioned, and if it were I don’t know what my answer would be. Drink your tea and tell me why you’re here.’

‘To let you know that my marriage is over.’

Martin’s tone was as final as his words and Marianne, distressed though she was, knew she must accept the inevitable.

‘Psychoanalysis is helping Moira sort herself out,’ Martin revealed, ‘and I hope for her sake she’ll end up a normal person again – if there is such a thing! She’s now able to talk to me about her obsession. The root of it, Mum, is a guilt problem about marrying out.’

‘Did her analyst say so?’

‘They never do, you’re not better until you see for yourself what’s wrong with you.’

‘Bessie’s analyst told Laura his findings—’

‘And I heard on the family grapevine what they are. In the case of a child he’d require the parents’ co-operation in the healing process, wouldn’t he? But he wouldn’t have told Bessie even if she were old enough to understand.’

Martin paused reflectively and drank some tea. ‘I find it remarkable that my lad seems unaffected by the insecurity he’s lived with for most of his life. It doesn’t make sense, does it? There’s Bessie, one of a happy family. A.P. on the other hand—’

‘May we get back to Moira?’

‘She now attends group therapy sessions, though it goes against the grain for a private person like her. I can’t imagine Moira loosening up and discussing her deepest feelings with others.’

‘Perhaps her psychoanalyst thinks that’s what she needs,’ said Marianne. ‘Is she still seeing him?’

‘He sits in on the group. Moira says everyone – including her – screams and shouts at each other when someone says something that riles them. It seems she was rattling on about her marriage being ruined by her Jewish in-laws—’

‘She didn’t put it quite that way when I took her to lunch.’

‘Pulling strings behind my back, were you?’ Martin said with a weary smile. ‘Thanks for trying, Mum.’

‘If Moira was able to tell you what you’ve just told me, I’d have thought that boded well for your relationship, that it indicated the possibility of a new understanding,’ Marianne said, allowing herself some hope.

Martin dashed it to the ground. ‘All Moira tells me is bits and bobs, and they’re never about her own contribution to the action. I got that information from Bill Dryden, who keeps me posted. Moira sees a lot of him and Sukey, and I’m immensely grateful to both of them.