‘Oh. Ernst’s money took care of that in two shifts. I owe Ernst a great deal.’ He made a dismissive gesture, and it sent irritation down me. What had happened to Sommer was grubby, and it had split the group. Irmi had distanced herself from us, preferring the company of the Three Graces, and Kaspar more and more took himself home on the weekends.

Walter waved a nearly empty bottle of vodka. Before I could answer he topped up the coffee with what was left. Unsleeping Walter, trading all day, painting all night, when did he rest? I had cycled past his curtained rooms many times, and had always assumed he’d been asleep. I had retreated into myself, while Walter had become a tsar of all things.

‘Chin, chin,’ he said, our cups clinking together.

The coffee and booze warmed me up. I looked again at the marshy paintings. ‘Whose are those?’

‘They’re Charlotte’s.’

‘Oh. Really?’ I felt bad that I didn’t like them. I stood to get a closer look: the brushwork on both was thick, as if she’d used a palette knife. Walter would have chosen this specifically, since everything, now, was measured in how much of the thing it was. I looked for her initials but couldn’t find them.

‘What did you trade them for?’

‘A bag of salt.’

‘You could have just given it to her.’

‘Do you think she deserves that? After what she did to us?’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘whatever she did to us, Jenö did too.’

‘She worked on him. Between the Bath-house and the tribunal, she worked on him.’

‘Rubbish. If there’s anyone you should be angry at, it’s Jenö. He went with you, and then with her, of his own free will.’

‘No. She lured him away. Persuading him he wasn’t in love with me. Making him believe he was in love with her. It’s a treachery.’

‘No, Walter, it’s a disaster. That’s what makes it sad.’

Walter dusted the divan cushions. ‘I must have put him off quite violently.’

‘That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that it’s not just her to blame. Jenö acted badly. He shouldn’t have kissed you—’

‘Kissed me! He didn’t just kiss me, Paul, we went home together.’

‘What?’

‘When you saw Jenö outside the baker’s, he was walking home from my rooms.’

I thought back to what Jenö had said in Charlotte’s room. ‘I thought he was apologising to Sommer?’

‘Old Sommer didn’t get an apology. He got money, not an apology.’

‘Fine. You slept together. You didn’t get engaged.’

‘He made me a promise! With his body.’

I didn’t know whether I believed what I had said. Charlotte had never made any such promise. We hadn’t even ever talked about our relationship, and yet still I was full of indignation.