and mangoes. The game of mahjong in the evening. That first leg of the trip continued in an almost magical style - warmly met and welcomed on a verandah with a view of sky and fireflies and a baby elephant tethered to a palm tree - and in retrospect, much later, the short two weeks there were idyllic, something was preserved here and later in Calcutta she wished she could dig up and hug. What was it - her innocence, or her happiness?

‘I feared you might have got a bit bored with us here and our quiet ways,’ he said to her in the second week.

‘It’s been wonderful, you’ve both been so kind. I’ve learned so much about the farming here too, and the animals.’

‘Ha, well learning all about those silly rhino won’t get you far in Cal I fear. I hate to harp on about it. It’s those human animals in Cal that concern me.’

‘It’s sweet of you but I’m sure I’ll be fine. My mother’s cousin is married to an executive of a petroleum company. He oversees all the petrol stations for BurmaShell in the whole of India. They sound very respectable.’

‘That’s a very smart thing to say. I mean snobby, if you don’t mind me saying.’

‘Oh no, I wasn’t meaning...’

‘No, I know you weren’t, that’s what concerns me. Look why don’t you stay a little longer and I can call her and make sure everything is settled and OK? And that would mean you could take the next plane out, not the train, which is a long journey and quite something for a gal alone.’

But a little bit of magic died with this speech for Susan’s seventeen years unchallenged in the hamlets of Hertfordshire had made her proud.

‘Please don’t bother...’ she said withdrawing herself a little, ‘I’m sure it will be quite all right. I’m looking forward to it. It will be very enlightening. Really I can’t wait.’

‘Think that girl’s going to be safe in Cal?’ Trevor had said to his wife getting into bed the night before Susan was due to leave them. ‘Think I should call this friend of her mothers...’

‘It’s family, darling. Her mother’s cousin.’

‘Bound not to be as nice as we are.’

‘Darling...’