They walked back towards the house. Vain was talking about somebody who had lived on the other side of the road for a long time, but Mma Ramotswe did not listen. She was thinking of the futility of Susan’s quest. Why would somebody spend such a great amount of money—it must have been expensive for her to travel all the way from Canada—just to stand here in this desolate, ill-kept yard and remember a chicken coop and a servant’s room? It was an absurd thing to do—a self-indulgence in a world in which so much better use could be made of that money.

But then she reminded herself that it was not for her to enquire as to why people asked her to uncover information. Once she started to do that, she would rapidly talk herself out of a job and the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency might as well close its doors. If she had to assume responsibility for the use every suspicious wife might make of information about the secret life of her husband, she would end up having to decline too many cases. She knew very well that she could not heal such marriages; that she and Mma Makutsi ended up giving clients ammunition to use in rows and showdowns, but she had to live with that. People were entitled to know about the bad behaviour of others; people were entitled to know if they were being betrayed or cheated, or somehow let down. Some wanted vengeance—which Mma Ramotswe would never recommend—while others sought freedom or, at least, to know where they stood, and such people were entitled to this knowledge, just as Mma Susan was entitled to this curious, nostalgic trip to discover something that she had once had, but had no longer. How others spent their money, thought Mma Ramotswe, was not her business. We might want others to spend wisely, but if they did not, then it did not fall to us to stop them.

Vain gave them tea on the verandah.

“It is a very good idea to go back,” he said as he passed Susan her cup. “I went back to see the school I attended, you know. And you know what it’s like, don’t you?”

He looked at Mma Ramotswe, as if expecting confirmation.

She said, “It’s very small. Everything is so small.”

Vain nodded vigorously. “Exactly! It’s much smaller.” He took a sip of his tea. “Why do you think that is, Mma Ramotswe?”

“Because we were small ourselves, Rra?” She thought about it further. Yes, we were small and so things around us were bigger. Now that we were bigger, things were smaller. Was that the way it worked?