“Poor Julian. Still, it’s not for so much longer, is it?”

“I don’t know what I’ll do when I leave here. I’ll probably never get another job.”

“That’s what everyone says.”

“I say, Emma, you don’t happen to know what Wyndham’s doing next, do you?”

“No, I’ve no idea.”

“I just thought that if there was anything going you might mention me . . .  they tell me that there’s a good chance that one of these will transfer to London at the end of the season; it’d just be right, to go into town in the autumn. Have you heard anything about that?”

“I haven’t heard a thing,” I said stiffly, and Julian took the hint. He gave me another fruit gum and wandered off to change, but he left me thinking. It seemed that my life was no longer a dark secret, but had become the subject of speculation. I had a feeling that my affair with Wyndham Farrar would be known throughout the profession before it had even taken place.