The affair had been running for about fourteen months when he told me, and the number of people who knew before I did is nine.

I know it is nine because I eventually counted, in the spring, deliberately, with a piece of paper, which Dr.

Halloran did not think was a good idea and which I did anyway and do not regret.

Four of them were at the company.

Two of those four are people I had cooked for.

Three were the wives or husbands of those people, who knew because their spouses told them, which is how information actually travels.

One was a woman I played tennis with for six years.