‘Yes, but I shan’t let that be a reason for my joining the club,’ said A.P. ‘I’d prefer my initiation ceremony to be conducted by the right girl.’

Had Marianne been privy to her grandson’s words, she would have recognized him as the romantic his father and grandfather were, and perhaps have found herself fearing for him, since along with romanticism went the capacity for disillusion.

A suitable candidate for A.P.’s initiation presented herself to him and Jeremy immediately they arrived, three days later, in Berlin. She was also to prove the direct opposite of the young people they had met at the centre in Munich.

They were standing amid the bustling throng outside Tegel Airport, waiting to be collected by Herr Schulmann’s chauffeur, whom Karin had said would be there to transport them to her parents’ home.

‘Imagine us getting into a Rolls, dressed in our grubby jeans!’ said Jeremy. ‘Not to mention our rucksacks. We ought to’ve been firmer with Karin about making our own way there—’

‘Since they know we’re students, how else would they expect us to look?’ said A.P. ‘Grandfather Kyverdale no longer bats an eyelid when I show up at the stately home looking like this. Did you pack a jacket and tie, to wear for dinner, though, like I told you to?’

‘Laura made me bring a suit, but it’ll look like hell after how it’s travelled—’

‘There’ll be someone only too pleased to press it for you—’

‘And I wish now we hadn’t accepted the Schulmanns’ hospitality! It would’ve been more fun to stay at a hostel, there’d be girls staying there, too—’

‘That would have been unkind to Karin,’ A.P. countered. ‘We couldn’t have done it.’

‘Why,’ said Jeremy, ‘did my dad have to marry into a family where there’s practically no escaping relatives anywhere in the world!’

‘And I sometimes find it difficult to believe,’ said A.P., ‘that it all began with the Sandbergs and Moritzes settling in a ghetto in Manchester at the turn of the century.’

‘Please don’t go all historical on me,’ Jeremy snapped, ‘and why is that stunning girl eyeing us? Handsome we may be, but not that handsome—’

‘Well, my fly isn’t undone, is yours?’ A.P. laughed when Jeremy glanced down to make sure.

The girl then hesitantly approached them, her long hair gleaming like ripe corn in the afternoon sunlight and tossed by the wind.

‘If it’s you she fancies, I’ll consider it one I owe you,’ Jeremy had time to say before she reached them.

‘If you are not whom I am here to meet, this will perhaps seem to you a joke,’ was her preamble. ‘Are you waiting to be taken to where you are going in a Rolls-Royce?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ said Jeremy.