By the time he turned round he had it arranged.
He said my name gently. He has never said anything to me any other way.
Everybody in that room heard an old man being let down by a friend who could not keep a promise.
I had a piece of paper in my bag that I had chosen at seven that morning.
ITEM 11. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER I STOOD UP.
It did not go the way it goes in a story.
Judge Clathorne took the list and read it, and then he read it again, and then he said: “Mr Mahon, I’m going to adjourn this.”
Bertie said: “Your Honour, I’d rather you didn’t.”
That man stood in a courtroom and asked a judge to sentence him anyway.
Clathorne said: “I know you would.”
It came back in the November. No conviction. The shop withdrew.
What happened instead is exactly what Bertie said would happen, in that kitchen, in the April.
