She stood aside and he walked past her and down the passage into the kitchen.

Lar was struggling to get into his trousers. Pansy thumped her tail on the floor once or twice and then lay down and closed her eyes.

‘What a nice domestic scene,’ said the doctor.

‘I didn’t ask for a house call.’

‘I’m on holiday. How about a cup of coffee? How do you do? I think we’ve spoken on the telephone.’

He held his hand out towards Lar.

‘This is Lar. Laurence McGrane. Lar, my doctor.’

Lar finished shoving his shirt into the top of his trousers and shook the man’s hand. The right trouser leg was still sopping wet. The doctor’s hand was cool and soft – just, he thought, as a medical man’s hands should be.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Hello there. Yes, well, I was just drying my trousers.’

Clara moved the kettle onto the hotplate. ‘Were the fish not biting?’

He pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. ‘Your mother rang me.’

‘Mother? Is she not well? I had supper with her the day before yesterday and she seemed OK.’

‘She’s fine. She just thought I ought to come home. So I did. I pay a lot of heed to what your mother says to me. Mind if I smoke?’

‘Be my guest.’

She turned away and taking the coffee-pot down from the shelf began to spoon coffee into it. The doctor offered his cigarette packet to Lar.

‘Smoke?’

‘No, thanks.’

‘Sensible man. I only do when off duty. Even that’s foolish.’ He took a lighter from his pocket and lit his cigarette. He inhaled deeply and then let the smoke slowly out through his nose. Clara picked up the kettle and poured boiling water onto the coffee. Lar wondered what was going on. Pansy smiled in her sleep.

‘So what did Mother have on her mind?’ The doctor gave a little laugh. ‘She seemed to think that you weren’t looking after yourself very well.’ He held his hand up to stop her speaking. ‘I told her I’d seen you the other day and that you looked all right to me, but she seemed concerned, so …’ He took another deep pull on his cigarette. ‘You know how she is. The weather wasn’t great for fishing anyway. I missed Dublin. My sister-in-law is a lovely woman but there’s little calm around her household. I longed for silence. Am I doing OK?’

‘No. I really object to being treated like this. My mother is intolerable. You know as well as I do, how intolerable she is. You should pay no attention to her.’ She pushed the plunger down in the coffee-pot.

‘Too soon,’ the doctor said. ‘You should let it brew for five minutes.’

‘Do not tell me what to do in my own kitchen.’

She poured some coffee into a mug and pushed it across the table towards him. He ignored it.

‘Coffee, Lar?’

‘Perhaps I should … ah …’