Elspeth looked around. ‘But it’s a really large flat,’ she said. ‘Lots of people – virtually everyone – make do with much less space. We’re lucky.’

‘Of course we’re lucky. I know that. But how are you going to get three babies up the stair? Impossible.’

Elspeth thought about this. ‘No …’

‘Well, there you are,’ said Matthew. ‘We’re going to have to move.’

She saw that he was right. But where could they move? Was Matthew planning a move into suburbia – to the braes of Corstorphine, to the glades of Colinton, to the Braids? This was all territory with which she was unfamiliar, her idea of it being long avenues of well-set bungalows with neat little gardens behind carefully manicured hedges. Such places were undoubtedly comfortable, but she wondered whether anything happened there. Matthew, she thought, might be unhappy in such circumstances; he was more urban than suburban, and it was difficult to imagine him wheeling the triple pushchair off to Blackford Pond to visit the ducks. And yet, that’s what people did; they went off into the suburbs and were never seen again.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘I suppose we’re going to have to get somewhere more suitable. But where? Corstorphine?’

Matthew shook his head. ‘No, I don’t think so. Corstorphine is fine for …’ He paused, uncertain how to complete the sentence. What was Corstorphine fine for? He was not sure. It was not far from the zoo, of course, and he had heard that at night one might hear the lions roaring. He was not sure how he would react to that. It might make one think one was in the Serengeti, or it might make one reflect on the whole question of keeping such great, proud beasts in northern captivity.

‘So, where then?’

Matthew looked up at the ceiling. ‘Well, what do we need? Somewhere on the ground floor. Somewhere with a garden where we can play with the baby … babies. Somewhere within reach of the gallery so I don’t have to sit in a bus all morning. Somewhere … comfortable.’

Elspeth thought for a moment. She had seen a large For Sale notice recently and remembered thinking that the place that it was advertising might be rather attractive. But where was it? It took a few moments to recall, but then it came to her and she smiled with pleasure at the recollection.

‘Just round the corner,’ she said.

‘Ann Street?’ Matthew asked.

‘No, not Ann Street. They have a committee, you know, to decide whether you can live there.’

Matthew shook his head. ‘I don’t think that’s true. I know people who live in Ann Street, and they’re not like that. They’re very welcoming – within reason, of course.’ He paused. ‘They do have a list, though, of people who should not be allowed to live there. It’s quite a long list, actually. Apparently there are seventeen names on it.’