“How have you been walking recently?”
There was no point in lying to him. “I walk as far as Trafalgar Square most mornings,” I said. “I take a taxi from there.”
“You can’t quite manage the whole distance to your office?”
“No,” I said. “I haven’t done that for some time.”
“Can you walk upstairs in your club, to the first floor, without stopping?”
I shook my head. “I always go up in the lift. But anyway, there aren’t any stairs in Queensland. All the houses are bungalows.”
He smiled. “Take off your coat and your shirt, and let me have a look at you.”
When he had finished his examination, he said, “Well. Are you proposing to go alone?”
I nodded. “I shall be staying with friends at the other end. They’ll meet me when I get off the aeroplane.”
“And you really feel it’s necessary that y
