Pauline and the old lady were two of the five mourners in the church. Mrs Beale came bustling in to make a sixth just as the minister came to the small pulpit.

Dearly beloved we are gathered here together today... The service began.

Pauline Bonham, née O’Brien but in truth Popham, did not cry at the short service that celebrated the life of Roger Popham, actor. But as she stood and sang ‘Abide With Me’, Roger’s favourite hymn (we all like having a good sing at that one my dear, he had said to Mrs Beale), she found it was her voice that led the singing, the voices of the old people wavering underneath her.

Abide With Me; fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens; Lord With me Abide

She sang on, her voice high and clear still, leading the singing for her father. And as she sang she thought, it was true: my father did fly on the trapeze in the circus, just as I’d always said. And he told me about it, after all. I am so glad that I found him. And Harry has told me something about him that makes me know he had courage. Whatever happens now I must remember: I am my father’s daughter.

And as her voice soared up she felt some kind of odd affirmation of herself at last.

And something else too: a warning perhaps for others.

I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless;

Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.

Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still – if Thou Abide With Me.

Afterwards, having helped the old lady down the three steps and left her talking to a friend, she walked with Mrs Beale back to Copperfield Hall.

‘What an extraordinary thing,’ said Mrs Beale, ‘Roger being your father. You didn’t tell him, the other day?’

‘I – I let him work it out,’ said Pauline. ‘I think he – understood. But –’ the thought had been niggling at her mind ‘–we shouldn’t have talked so long, let him get cold, perhaps we – perhaps I shouldn’t have—’

‘No,’ said Mrs Beale firmly. ‘He was a very old man.’ And then she sighed. ‘But it made me feel sad, that you knew him for such a short time. Do you have a family?’

‘Yes, yes, three children, I hadn’t told them yet, I wanted it to be a surprise, it would have been so interesting for them to meet him and hear about his life, they come from a show business family. And about the circus. Oh, I am so very sorry –’ her voice faltered only slightly ‘– to have met him so late.’

‘He was very sociable,’ said Mrs Beale, ‘as you saw. But he was also very – contained. He might have found it hard to suddenly acquire a family at this stage.’