‘There now, ma’am, to think of you going to marry that gentleman. It was a Rolls he came in. It was indeed. It quite sobered Barnes up to think of one of them Rolls standing outside our door. Why, I declare that dog’s sitting out on the window sill.’

‘He likes the sun,’ said Joyce. ‘But it’s rather dangerous. Terry, come in.’

‘I’d have the poor dear put out of his misery if I was you,’ said Mrs Barnes, ‘and get your gentleman to buy you one of them plumy dogs as ladies carry in their muffs.’

Joyce smiled and called again to Terry. The dog rose awkwardly and just at that moment the noise of a dog fight rose from the street below. Terry craned his neck forward and added some brisk barking. The window sill was old and rotten. It tilted and Terry, too old and stiff to regain his balance, fell.

With a wild cry, Joyce ran down the stairs and out of the front door. In a few seconds she was kneeling by Terry’s side. He was whining pitifully and his position showed her that he was badly hurt. She bent over him.

‘Terry–Terry darling–darling, darling, darling–’

Very feebly, he tried to wag his tail.

‘Terry boy–Missus will make you better–darling boy–’

A crowd, mainly composed of small boys, was pushing round.

‘Fell from the window, ’e did.’

‘My, ’e looks bad.’

‘Broke ’is back as likely as not.’

Joyce paid no heed.

‘Mrs Barnes, where’s the nearest vet?’

‘There’s Jobling–round in Mere Street–if you could get him there.’

‘A taxi.’

‘Allow me.’

It was the pleasant voice of an elderly man who had just alighted from a taxi. He knelt down by Terry and lifted the upper lip, then passed his hand down the dog’s body.

‘I’m afraid he may be bleeding internally,’ he said. ‘There don’t seem to be any bones broken. We’d better get him along to the vet’s.’

Between them, he and Joyce lifted the dog. Terry gave a yelp of pain. His teeth met in Joyce’s arm.

‘Terry–it’s all right–all right, old man.’

They got him into the taxi and drove off. Joyce wrapped a handkerchief round her arm in an absentminded way. Terry, distressed, tried to lick it.

‘I know, darling; I know. You didn’t mean to hurt me. It’s all right. It’s all right, Terry.’

She stroked his head. The man opposite watched her but said nothing.

They arrived at the vet’s fairly quickly and found him in. He was a red-faced man with an unsympathetic manner.

He handled Terry none too gently while Joyce stood by, agonized. The tears were running down her face. She kept on talking in a low, reassuring voice.

‘It’s all right, darling. It’s all right…’

The vet straightened himself.