And both times I said I was thinking about it, and both times he said of course, and moved on, and did not push.
And on the second of June he said one more thing, at the door, with his hand on it.
He said: “It’s your letter, Mr Ackland. It isn’t theirs and it isn’t mine.”
Which is him telling me, as clearly as a man like that ever will, that nobody is going to take the decision off me.
And there is a third time, which I have not counted above because it was not him.
In the March, Dorcas Vreeland’s solicitor wrote to Mr Haldane asking whether the deceased had left any letter of wishes or memorandum, and Mr Haldane answered that question, properly and accurately, and told me he had.
They asked. In writing. In the March.
And the answer went back that such a document exists and that its disclosure is a matter for the person who holds it.
