One of the workmen paused to mop his brow with a handkerchief. Yes, thought Mma Ramotswe, it is very hot, even here in the shade. Yet people had to work, even in this heat; they had to take boards off the front of shops, they had to cook meals in kitchens, they had to lie under cars and struggle to undo the nuts on oil sumps, they had to… Her attention was caught by the workman’s renewed struggles with the board. He had prised it off successfully and was shifting it to one side, revealing the lettering painted on the glass behind.

Mma Ramotswe stared at the name: The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon. It took a moment or two, but then it came to her: she knew about this business. She had met Mma Soleti, its owner, who had previously operated her beauty salon from such unpromising small premises – no more than a shack, really – and who now was moving into this much smarter accommodation. This was indeed a business success.

She got to her feet and approached the workman.

‘Dumela, Rra,’ she said. ‘You are doing a very good job.’

The man, breathless from his exertions, mopped his brow again. ‘It is too hot to be working, Mma.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘The only thing to do in weather like this is to sit in some cool place somewhere. But…’ She paused as she peered into the shop’s interior. ‘But business has to go on, Rra, and, as it happens, I know this lady. I know Mma Soleti.’

The man scrutinised her for a moment. ‘You have been a client, Mma?’

Mma Ramotswe smiled. ‘Not really, Rra. I am not a lady who spends a lot of time on fashion and such things. And you, Rra? Have you…’ She left the question unfinished.

He laughed. ‘Men do not go to these places.’

‘Perhaps they should, Rra. Perhaps men should go and have the wrinkles taken out of their faces.’

For a moment the workman looked anxious, and his hand went involuntarily to his face.

‘I am not being serious,’ Mma Ramotswe reassured him. ‘Women do not notice the wrinkles on men’s faces. Women are mostly interested in what is in a man’s heart. Is he a kind man? That is the question, Rra. And there are many kind men who have many wrinkles.’

The workman nodded. ‘This woman, this Mma Soleti, is coming here soon to open up her shop. That is why we are getting it ready.’

‘Soon soon?’ asked Mma Ramotswe.

‘Yes. She should have been here already, but maybe there is traffic and she is delayed.’