It is not really a balcony; it is a fire escape with ambitions.

There are four terracotta pots on it and I have killed hydrangeas in all four of them, twice, and I am going to keep doing it.

Arthur comes over.

He has for a year and a half, in the ordinary way that people do, which is to say two or three times a week and not at all for a fortnight and then a Sunday that goes on too long.

We are not married.