We didn’t quarrel that night. After a moment he began his lonely humming: Oh the shark has, wicked teeth dear … and he picked up his book and read and I went to sleep.

Next day bad temper prickled through the hotel. June Boothby had gone to a dance with her fiancé, and had not returned untill morning. Mr Boothby had shouted at his daughter when she came in and Mrs Boothby had wept. The row with Jackson had permeated through the staff. The waiters were sullen with us all at lunch. Jackson went off at three o’clock according to the letter of the law, leaving Mrs Boothby to do the food for the dance, and June would not help her mother because of how she had been spoken to the day before. And neither would we. We heard June shouting: ‘If you weren’t so mean you’d get another assistant cook, instead of making a martyr of yourself for the sake of five pounds a month.’ Mrs Boothby had red eyes, and again her face had the look of frantic disorganized emotion and she followed June around, protesting. Because, of course, she was not mean. Five pounds was nothing to the Boothbys; and I suppose the reason why she didn’t get an extra cook was because she didn’t mind working twice as hard and thought there was no reason why Jackson shouldn’t as well.

She went off to her house to lie down. Stanley Lett was with Mrs Lattimore on the verandah. The hotel tea was served at four by a waiter, but Mrs Lattimore had a headache and wanted black coffee. I suppose there must have been some trouble with her husband, but we had come to take his complaisance so much for granted we didn’t think of that until later. Stanley Lett went to the kitchen to ask the waiter to make coffee but the coffee was locked up, and Jackson, trusted family retainer, had the keys of the store cupboard. Stanley Lett went off to Jackson’s cottage to borrow the keys. I don’t think it occurred to him that this was tactless, in the circumstances. He was simply, as was his nature, ‘organizing’ supplies. Jackson, who liked Stanley because he associated the RAF with human treatment, came down from his cottage to open the cupboard and make black coffee for Mrs Lattimore. Mrs Boothby must have been seeing all this from her bedroom windows, for now she came down and told Jackson that if he ever did such a thing again he would get the sack. Stanley tried to soothe her but it was no use, she was like a possessed woman, and her husband had to take her off to lie down again.

George came to Willi and me and said: ‘Do you realize what it would mean if Jackson got the sack? The whole family would be sunk.’

‘You mean you would,’ said Willi.

‘No, you silly clot, for once I’m thinking of them. This is their home. Jackson’d never find another place where he could have his family with him. He’d have to get a job somewhere and the family would have to go back to Nyasaland.’