‘I’ve got an idea Ming was right about Britton. I don’t think he’ll be leaving … just yet, anyway. If he’s at all hesitant, you won’t discourage him, will you? You can put up with...

She said: ‘Well, that’s concrete enough! This year, next year …’ I said: ‘It’s only his peculiar sense of humour, Lulu.’ I hesitated, another child within another unyouthful and alien body, but at this moment...

I felt a need to intervene; not to save Britton from whatever might be in store for him – I had neither sympathy nor interest in that – but to reaffirm the principle of my...

I went over to the table with him while Piers fixed the radiogram. Lulu, Britton and I took our chairs, Lulu sitting between us so that she faced Piers’s empty chair. Britton gazed round at...

Piers, I observed, greeted us both with the same smile, an incongruous glance of friendship from those deep, withdrawn eyes of his. He said to Britton: ‘Lend Lulu a hand with the table, Joe, will...

‘Joe! Ready to come up and tackle the spooks? Piers told me to fetch you.’ She flicked her head sideways. ‘And you, of course, Tenn.’ My earlier resentment was not completely gone. There was no...

‘Good old Rupert. Nothing’s lost on you, is it? All grist to the sacred mill. But what comes out of all that grist? What makes the mill-wheel turn? And who’s the miller?’ ‘Comes out?’ Rupert...

I glanced beyond him to where Rupert was resting his long body against the wall. He looked more melancholy than ever, although I should have known him better than to form generalizations based on his...

‘Rupert dropped in to see you. He’s had no chance to have a chat with you since you arrived.’ Britton said, over his shoulder: ‘No, that’s right. We both seem to have been too busy...