He had arranged to meet Charlotte Miller at ten o’clock, but he went half an hour earlier to the property because he wanted to assess it for future sale. The owner wasn’t there, but workmen with a small digger were laying pipes and cables to the back of the section, and Pearly was told the house had been left open for him. A two-bedroomed weatherboard place with a decramastic tile roof and an open fireplace that Pearly’s council had legislated against to curb winter pollution levels. He made some notes on his iPad, then stood in the sun by the back door to watch the digger. The new house would restrict the old one to a minimum of surrounding space and privacy, and in his heart Pearly disliked that, yet knew, with so many couples both working, that large sections were no longer seen as an advantage. More expensive houses on smaller, easy-care plots were what people were after, or townhouses when they reached an age at which maintaining a garden became a chore. Pearly as mayor and real estate agent knew the sensible arguments for suburban infill, but too often the natural proportions were lost and a fine home was left awkwardly confined with an inappropriate companion, like a zoo giraffe enclosed with an orphaned hippopotamus.

The digger was quite new, the guy operating it doing so with casual proficiency. Pearly felt a passing inclination to have a go, but was too conscious of his position to make any request. He walked round to the front of the house in time to see Charlotte arrive, and they went inside, where the noise of the machine was muffled and they could talk more easily. She wasn’t much interested in the details of the place: all she wanted was a basic, clean house as cheaply as possible for a few months. ‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘Thank you. I was prepared to pay more. This is fine.’

‘It’ll be noisy,’ said Pearly. ‘There’ll be people busy out there most days I’d say, but that’s the trade-off.’

‘I’ll be at work most of the time, and Michael at school. Does all this furniture stay?’ There were a lounge suite, kitchen table and chairs, beds with mattresses, though, oddly enough, all the curtains were gone.

‘I’m not sure,’ said Pearly. ‘I’ll ask Clifford. I guess so, or it would’ve been removed by now.’