William shook his head incredulously. 'Why didn't he tell me?'

'You~ve known each other since you were at school together. My guess is he's far too proud to burden anyone else with his problems. He'd rather die in his own way than let anyone realise what he's going through. I have begged him for the last six months to tell his father, and I have certainly broken my professional promise to him by letting you know, but I can't let you go on blaming him for something over which he has absolutely no control.'

'Thank you, Andrew,' said William. 'How can I have been so blind and so stupid?'

'Don't blame yourself,' said Doctor MacKenzie. 'There's no way you could have known!

'Is there really no hope?' asked William. 'Are there no clinics, no specialists? Money would be no problem...'

'Money can't buy everything, William, and I have consulted the three best men in America, and one in Switzerland. I am afraid they are all in agreement with my diagnosis, and medical science hasn't yet discovered a cure for Hodgkin's disease.'

'How long has he got to live?' asked Kate in a whisper.

'Six months at the outside, more likely three.'

'And I thought I had problems,' said William. He held tightly on to Kate's hand as if it were a lifeline. 'We must be going, Andrew. Thank you for telling us.'

'Help him in any way you can,' said the doctor, 'but for God's sake, be understanding. Let him do what he wants to do. It's Matthew's last few months, not yours. And don't ever let him know I told you.'

William drove Kate home in silence. As soon as they reached the Red House, William called the girl Matthew had lef t the party with.

'Would it be possible to ipeak to Matthew Lester?'

'He's not here,' said a rather irritable voice. 'He dragged me off to the In and Out Club, but he was already drunk by the time we got there, and I refused to go in that place with him.'Then she hung up.

The In and Out Club. William had a hazy recollection of having seen the sign swinging from an iron bar but he couldn't remember exactly where the place was. He looked it up in the phone book, drove over to the north side of town and eventually, after questioning a passer - by, he found the club. William knocked on the door. A hatch slid back.

'Are you a member?'

'No,' said William firmly, and passed a ten - dollar note through the grill.

The hatch slid closed, and the door opened. William walked on to the middle of the dance floor, looking slightly incongruous in his three - piece banker's suit. The dancers, twined around each other, swayed incuriously away from him. William's eyes searched the smoke - filled room for Matthew, but he wasn!t there. Finally he thought he recognised one of Matthew's many recent casual girlfriends, whom he felt certain he'd seen coming out of his friend's flat early one morning. She was sitting cross - legged in a corner with a sailor. William went over to her.

'Excuse me, miss,'he said.

She looked up but obviously didnt recognise William.

'rhe lady's with me, so beat it,' said the sailor.

'Have you seen Matthew Lester?'

Watthew?l said the girl. 'Matthew who?'

'I told you to get lost,' said the sailor, rising to his feet.

~One more word out of you, and I'll knock your block off,' said Williarr - L The sailor had seen anger like that in a man's eyes once before in his life and had nearly lost an eye for his trouble. He sat back down.

'Where is Matthew?'

'I don't know a Matthew, darling.' Now she, too, was frightened.

'Six - feet - two, blond hair, dressed like me, and probably drunk.'

~Oh, you mean Martin. He calls himself Martin here, darling, not Matthew.'

She began to relax. 'Now let me see, who did he go off with tonight?' She turned her head towards the bar and shouted at the bartender. 'Terry, who did Martin go out with?'

The bartender removed a dead cigarette butt from the comer of his mouth.

'Jenny,' he said, and put the unlit cigarette back in place.

Uenny, that's right,' said the girl. 'Now let me see, she's short sessions.

Never lets a man stay for more than half an hour, so they should be back soon.'

'Thank you,' said William.

He waited for almost an hour at the bar sipping a scotch with a lot of water, feeling more and more out of place by the minute. Finally, the bartender, the unlit cigarette still in his mouth, gestured to a girl who was coming through the door.

'That's Jenny,' he said. Matthew was not with her.