‘I wanted to speak to you about Berta. She seemed to think that I would employ her permanently.’

‘Well, why not? Don’t you like her?’

‘Very much. But I can’t – I mean I ought not to afford her. I know I’m earning a great deal more than I did in Alchester; but I must meet the responsibility I spoke of; and I have thought of another plan, which will mean that I must be very economical indeed.’

‘Berta won’t burden your budget. She is employed by the school. She attends to the needs of the Headmistress, and every afternoon she cleans the school premises.’

‘I see. Really, Canon Thorby, it’s all too much. I can’t help feeling that it is a dream from which I shall wake up.’

‘Tell me that sometime around next March, when you’ve wintered with us.’ He took a little sip from his glass and looked about the room. ‘You do fully understand, don’t you, that this is your home and you are free to make any changes that you wish? The furniture stands now as it did in my aunt’s time. Mrs Westleton had a passion for triangular chairs with tubular legs, and until this week all this was stored in one of our attics. It can go back to make room for anything you wish to install.’

‘I wouldn’t change a single thing. It is exactly the home that I never even dared dream of having.’

His look of warm approval indicated that she had pleased him.

‘It is pleasant for me to see the old familiar things in their proper places again. Oh, and I must not forget my other errand, which was to ask you to lunch with us tomorrow. My sister would have written, but she has had a terrible migraine for the last three days. The advantage of migraine – she told me to tell you – is that its course is calculable, and she is sure that she will be quite restored tomorrow.’

‘If you are sure of that, of course, I shall be delighted to lunch with you.’