‘No thanks.’

‘Why did she come to see you?’

‘Well – it was odd really, I forgot I hadn’t told you, I think it was you she was after actually, but you were at Stratford. She said that Terence had told her only a few weeks before that he was impotent. She said she’d told you.’

Now Anthony came back to the sofa with his glass. ‘She did – imply – something like that, that’s right, at the reunion. I’d completely forgotten. But – whatever did she come and tell you for?’ All the natural caution of a serial adulterer came to the fore.

Pauline sat back very deliberately on the sofa: all the antennae of the wife of a serial adulterer were carefully attuned.

The old old pattern of their lives.

‘I think she thought she might be able to – help him,’ she said carefully. ‘Go to the police or something.’

‘Oh what a lot of rubbish. She can be very tiring sometimes, Molly. It’s nothing to do with her. Terence’ll have the best lawyers in the world, he won’t need Molly.’

‘I think that’s what she thought too, in the end.’

‘It was very odd of her, to come and see you...’ He drank his whisky rather quickly. ‘How’s Benedict?’

‘Quiet.’

‘What should I have done Pauly? Let him go off with the appalling Iona Spring?’

‘Oh I don’t know Tony. Pity you were so tired and emotional.’

‘I was not tired and emotional. I was looking after my son. You would have done the same if you’d happened to be usefully there at the time.’

Pauline, who had been there at the time, recognised a row brewing, changed tack.

‘Viola wants to talk to you about agents again in the morning. And she’s got a plan, with the other students, wants to discuss it with you.’

‘What plan?’

‘She’ll tell you about it. They want to put on their own show on the fringe, as soon as they finish their course. She keeps talking about performance art.’

‘Oh for fuck’s sake, not Performance Art for Christ’s sake, not my daughter.’ He actually groaned. ‘Anyway there’s absolutely no need for Viola to do that, she’ll get work, I was talking to Suzie Tonks about her only on Friday.’

‘I think she – I think they feel they want to have some control.’

‘Does she know how much it costs to put a play on even on the fringe these days?’

‘We’ve talked about it.’