I could see his mood beginning to thaw. His pleasure over the present was dissipating the annoyance some setback had caused him. He undid string, unfolded paper and produced a framed painting, holding it at arm’s length. It was one of Robert’s paintings that I had seen at the exhibition.

‘Oh, she’ll love that,’ I said.

‘It’ll go just opposite the bed,’ said Syl, looking at it carefully.

‘I’m sure she’ll be pleased with it,’ I said, in as bright a tone as I could contrive. Syl was now quite cheerful and inclined to sit down and talk, but I had nothing to say that evening and went to bed. I sat reading for a while and wondering whether Syl had taken the painting in exchange for the money he had lent Robert. It was none of my business.

‘I won’t half be glad when this wedding’s over,’ said Mrs Raffald. ‘I can’t get on with anything in that house.’

‘Is Margaret still going round like a dying duck in a thunderstorm?’ I asked.

‘There’s something not right with that girl,’ she announced, stuffing a duster in her apron pocket. ‘Sometimes I think she’s not all there.’

‘I wonder if she’s ill,’ I mused, remembering countrywomen’s talk of green sickness and trying to remember what they’d meant by it.

‘She’s always thinking of something else,’ said Mrs Raffald. ‘Miles away.’

I wondered where she went, and then something connected in my mind. There had been a thunderstorm that night when Monica had come round, distraught, with her hair flying, but I had not previously associated it with Mrs Raffald’s dying duck. I heard myself saying ‘Ah.’

‘Eh?’ said Mrs Raffald.

It had sounded even to me like an exclamation of pain. I said I had a twinge of rheumatism.

‘Then get out of this kitchen and back in the warm,’ said Mrs Raffald. ‘Go and sit down in the sitting-room and I’ll bring you a cup of tea.’ She brought a plate of Lili’s biscuits too, and I crumbled one in the saucer while she watched me.

‘You don’t look after yourself,’ she said.

‘Does she ever say anything…?’ I began.

‘Not a lot,’ said Mrs Raffald. ‘Robert was trying to talk to her the other morning when her mum and Lili went off. I heard Lili telling him to take her out to lunch or something but he couldn’t get any change out of her. She’s happiest with her own company.’