Yesterday afternoon, towards six o’clock, I’m coming back from a short walk with Colia [Nicholas Balfour] and as I approach the house I see Redfern, who beckons to me. Without even bothering to say hello, he tells me he’s come to install his aged mother in our house. “It has to be done immediately.” I’m dumbfounded. He explains in an excited voice and with his eyes bulging out of his face that his father [James Riddiough Redfern], who had been interned in Santo Tomas, has been released and has gone back to live in his house once again; his old mother doesn’t get on with his father and can’t stay in the same house, so she’s got to live with us. Not a word of apology, I can’t believe my ears, but a few moments later I see a wrinkled old woman with discolored hair arrive, followed by a servant boy carrying a mattress — and a dog! I go to give this piece of bad news to Anne, who’s filled with dismay…
