‘If you really feel that way – and, I repeat, there is absolutely no reason why you should – you could do me a great favour. You could lend – I say “lend” because I would do my best to repay you, but I might not be able to manage it – lend me fifty pounds. You see, I have had some unlooked-for expenses, and I’m not quite clear about my future. Canon Thorby has engaged another teacher who will be here at least until Christmas; I’m going to help a little, but I can’t hope for much salary. Fifty pounds would be a great help to me just now.’

‘I can see that; and it’s yours. But I wanted to give you something. Well, you’ll have it in your Christmas stocking.’ He took out his wallet and selected ten five-pound notes from a wad of them.

‘There, you are. Forget all about it.’

‘I shan’t do that. You’ve helped me more than you know. And I shall pay you back – very slowly, perhaps – but as soon as I can.’

They argued the point for another minute or so, and then he changed the subject by saying:

‘Did you hear that Tharkell had made a job for Emily Baines? I offered her one, too. Everybody felt sorry for her. It seemed an odd sort of match, right from the start. But there was more in Wesley than met the eye, wasn’t there?’

There it was again!

‘I liked what little I knew of him.’

‘Just so,’ Mr Frisby said.

It was Mrs Grieve who enlightened her. Kindly, garrulous, a little demanding, she could become in time a nuisance as a neighbour, Miss Mayfield realized; but there would be no time. In a few days the term would begin and school would constitute a refuge and an alibi. Moreover, Mrs Grieve’s restlessness was increasing; she was beginning to talk of going to visit her brother in Cape Province.

‘I just can’t face winter in Walwyk. Even having the house so warm is a disadvantage; you feel the cold so terribly when you do go out. And I haven’t seen Reggie for six years.’

So the friendship had flourished after the fashion of friendships aboard ships or in holiday hotels. Caution was not needed, because time itself set limits to the demands such an association might eventually make.

One day, over the teacups, Mrs Grieve said bluntly:

‘I’ve said before, haven’t I, that this place is the worst hotbed of gossip I ever knew. I really think I owe it to you to tell you what the latest is. Or have you heard and decided to ignore it?’

‘Why “owe”? Is it concerned with me?’

‘It definitely is. And I can’t bear to see you going about like a babe in the wood any longer. Whoever started it should be tracked down and exposed and made to apologize.’