i like how, when i came through the front gates at 10:40 this morning, the parents, both reading in the living room, looked not merely askance but absolutely convinced that Something was Wrong. the father, in particular, looked like he half-thought i’d been fired after just two days; i tell you, this family has no confidence in me, tsk! for of course i’d shown up in court bright and sunny as usual but our matter got stood down till 15:00, and the boss, dashing home to his Family Crisis of the Burst Water Pipe, told me to take the morning off and meet him back in court at 14:45. naturally, i also nip home for lunch and errands (and also because i’m in the thick of a good book,) not for the first time very smug that i live only 20 minutes away on the same train line as the courthouse. indolence, she admits, is her middle name, and also soft-living, but not, as yet, as it were, abject incompetence!
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird