‘Come come…’ laughed Bit. ‘For Christ’s sake have another whisky. We can’t have talk like this.’

‘Darling, see what I’m missing when you won’t let me go down to Calcutta. And all along you’ve said it was because I always spend too much money at the theatre and in the shops.’

Bit sighed indulgently. ‘Well you’ve done it now Dutch. You’d better put us right about Calcutta then. Tell us the worst. Anything to keep my wife away from those expensive Calcutta tailors…’ Agatha scowled.

Dutch raised his head and relaxed back in his chair, waiting a few moments before he replied.

He was actually rather beautiful with a strong face despite the sunburn that caked his skin. Now he had been asked a specific question, he relaxed into his subject utterly, like a teacher lecturing in his favourite class.

He said, ‘It’s simply that the psyche of the city seems to be shifting. It’s like a change of tide, rolling in to the beach and depositing new shells never seen before. On the surface the city is still immaculate. Of course Empire makes sure of that. The European boulevards

clean. The beggars perfectly managed. Some parts are like New York, have you been? The architecture, neo-classic here, then very modern there. But then in the city, this shifting,’ he said. ‘Refugees and immigrants everywhere. Tibetans and Nepalese, the Chinese, the Malay, and the Burmese - anyone who is being caught out on the Burmese front. They have pitched up in the city and turned it into great carnival for Asia. And Poles and white Russians… in a war population’s shift. Perhaps food will run out, perhaps it will not, something will have to give. And now American GIs everywhere – the city is overrun with them. Their huge troop ships float on the Hooghly, flooding the Ghats as the Hindus pray. It looks spectacular. And do you know they have turned your Mall into an airstrip, all the spitfires and … lined up outside your Victoria Memorial? The Americans don’t think the British can handle this side of the war, they think you are not focused enough, that you are too concerned about keeping the stability of empire.

‘And yes, there is political unrest among the Bengalis. Why should they fight the Japanese? Is it their war? They already have their enemy on the doorstep. I’m just reporting what I have heard of course… And then right down to the babies and the