If avoiding Arnold was Matthew’s policy, Pete’s was quite the opposite. Pete has certainly made an effort with his appearance this evening, Marianne noted. The well-pressed suit he had on was a far cry from the baggy trousers and skimpy pullovers that accentuated his girth and were his habitual garb.

‘There wasn’t time when we met on the doorstep to congratulate you on your knighthood, Sir Arnold,’ he said in his booming voice while pumping Arnold’s hand.

‘Yes, well – that’s very good of you,’ Arnold mouthed. ‘And now if you will excuse me, I haven’t yet had a word with our hostess.’

Arnold pointedly detached himself from Pete and Marianne could have hit him! She put a smile on her face and went to lend moral support to Lyn, remarking when Matthew and Pete came to chat to them, ‘You two haven’t dropped in to see me for ages. What have I done to deserve it?’

‘Martin told us you’re into a heavy work stint,’ said Matthew, ‘but when weren’t you?’ he added with a grin.

Marianne noted the sartorial elegance to which he had bowed as he grew older, his appearance now the public’s expectation of well-known actors, the bow tie he was wearing a perfect match with the silk handkerchief in the breast pocket of the maroon velvet jacket skimming his trim waistline.

Pete on the other hand – well, Marianne had marvelled from the first at the alliance between them. Matthew so sensitive and Pete an extrovert whose talent had set him among the outstanding directors of his day, the attention to detail in his work the opposite of the untidiness with which Matthew had to live.

They had met in the sixties, when experimental theatre began revitalizing the British scene, as its off-Broadway counterpart had in the States. Marianne had written a play for their company to perform, and recalled with a smile the panning she and they had received from the critics.

Those days, though, were long gone for all three. Marianne had then been already well on her way, able to take the risk she had and survive the damage. For Matthew and Pete the struggle had been long.

Remarkably, she thought, they were still side by side in every respect, Matthew towering over Pete’s avuncular figure, their comfortable rapport no less now than it had always been.

‘You must come and eat with us one evening, Marianne,’ said Pete. ‘We’re in town rehearsing our next production. Remember when we had time to drop in on Marianne, Matt?’ he added reminiscently. ‘And she’d sometimes say she wouldn’t be a minute, then disappear to her study and forget we were there?’

‘If that’s a retrospective rebuke I probably deserve it,’ said Marianne.