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One of the first things that John bought with his unexpected windfall was a smart travelling case, as he would have been embarrassed to be seen with the decrepit luggage he had been carting about all summer. But when he placed his gleaming new acquisition on the platform early on Thursday morning, he was suddenly apprehensive that he might have gone too far, for, next to his bag, Sir Christopher’s looked decidedly dowdy. Was there not, he wondered, something inherently vulgar about new luggage? But John could tell from Sir Christopher’s demeanour that bags, whether dingy or dazzling, were the last thing on the scholar’s mind. The train was late, and Sir Christopher appeared transparently agitated.
‘I suppose that we just have to be patient,’ John ventured to say, as yet another delay w
