Arthur said, “Officer?”

And Leo said, “So that when he gets out you can shout ‘Officer!

Come back!’ in the street.”

Arthur has done this.

Repeatedly.

In Greenwich.

He says it is the single funniest thing that has ever happened to him and that he would not change the name for money.

On the first properly warm Saturday of this year the four of us were in the garden and Nora was counting — she counted us, out loud, once, four, and then she was fine — and Leo was throwing a ball for a dog that does not return balls, and Arthur was trying to level a fence post.