He was still reflecting. ‘I felt we were being trained to go into battle like my grandparents, and now I’m nearly sixty and there’s been no battle, I wonder if actually the battle was fought here when I was eight, and that it was about learning to cope.’

The bell was ringing. Mr Tanner could be observed in the distance, crossing the playground in purposeful strides to take up his newly adopted position by the gate. Parents had begun trickling through it, assembling in clots outside the Rink. Soon Katya would stand there, and Silvi, and Updark’s overscented wife.

‘Let’s go and find my son,’ said Dyer.

Rougetel gave a last glance at the riverbank. He fell in step as they walked across the grass in the weakening sunlight. His gait much lighter somehow, as if a load had lifted.

As they approached the Hard Court, a boy advanced towards them.

Dyer called out: ‘Leandro, come and meet someone.’

It was hard to talk against the sound of other conversations, with mothers and children hurrying past, and Dyer unable to give Leandro a background to the lean, bearded figure whom he introduced, other than to say: ‘We were at the Phoenix together.’

Following a polite exchange – he didn’t say twenty words – Rougetel excused himself.

The strange light in his eyes told Dyer that he was still on his path, and was impatient to be off again.

Under the keen scrutiny of Mr Tanner, Dyer escorted him through the gate. It was clear from Rougetel’s hesitation, the way that his gaze roamed up and down the street, that he intended to leave in a direction opposite to Dyer. He had a mission to fulfil, more nets to set under the ice, and Dyer was not going to detain him.

‘Where will you go?’ Dyer asked.

‘The Hebrides, most likely.’ His grandmother had left him a croft – a good place to mull over his next subject. Already, his mind was turning to what he might study.

He stood with his heels on the edge of the pavement, working out his farewell. He repeated how lucky it was that they had bumped into each other. Providence had put Dyer in his path. He was grateful for their catch-up. He took Dyer’s hands. ‘It’s done me good to see you, it’s refreshed me. I’m reminded of so many things, and I’ll be the stronger for it.’

‘It’s done me good too,’ said Dyer, and rarely had he meant words more.

After a verbena-scented embrace, and a nod and a smile to Leandro, Rougetel set off down Bardwell Road. He had gone a few paces when he stopped and turned. He raised his arm in a half-completed gesture like a child reaching up to hold his mother’s hand. Then he continued walking, and this time he did not look back.