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straightforwardness of his colleagues he dismissed as one-dimensionality; they were too ready to call a spade a spade and under-estimated the vast and complex energies which define the life-force of a human being. In a nutshell, he yearned for Eve, and wondered for the very first time whether he might have been in love with her, and as for her baby, he felt an odd inclination to bring the child up as his own. After all, any other psychiatrist would have recommended abortion or at the very least adoption, but he had been enthusiastic all the way. Eve’s baby was, in a very vicarious sense, his.
    At the time of Josiah’s birth Dr Fothering had been languishing in Hull for six weeks. Recently he had seemed increasingly distracted, phoning the maternity hospital daily and asking for news of Eve Nelson. When finally they told her she was in labour, he was away, only remembering to explain his absence to his colleagues (‘possibly a life or death situation’ involving ‘someone close to him’) from a phone box half way down the A1.
    Dr Fothering was in the hospital car park at three pm, and ran, sweet man, all the way into the foyer where he filled his arms with huge lilies. He was too impatient to take the lift and skipped up the stairs; too impatient to ask anyone which ward she was on, and barged into all of them before he found her. He stood for a momentat the door, watching her. She looked wonderful, he thought, glowing, happy. Sheepishly he walked up to her bed.
    ‘Please don’t stop feeding your baby because of me!’ pleaded Dr Fothering.
    Eve did up the top button of her nightdress and looked at him quizzically.
    ‘But I don’t understand, what’s brought you to Cambridge? Are you visiting friends? Are you attending some conference or other? Of course I’m delighted to see you, Dr Fothering, but you see, you’ve completely caught me off my guard.’
    The poor man threw his flowers into Eve’s arms, so appalled was he by Eve’s reception of him, and Eve was touched and said the lilies were lovely. She took no care of them, nonetheless, and a couple of them dropped to the floor. Gibson winced as though he himself had been dropped, but could do nothing to save them, what with Josiah in his arms.
    ‘I wanted to see how you’ve taken to motherhood, Eve! And I came to see you not as an off-duty doctor but as a friend. From now on, you must call me ‘Michael’.
    ‘Gosh, Michael. Here, look, you look so uncomfortable. Sit down next to me. I’m so flattered that you’ve come! Did you really come all the way down from Hull to see me ?’
    Dr Fothering did as he was told, squashing a couple more lilies as he did so. Gibson could hardly bear it.
    ‘Well, I was so happy for you both,’ he said, and noted how wretched Gibson was looking. ‘Or should I say, happy for the three of you? My goodness, what a beautiful baby he is!’ For some reason he couldn’t quite fathom, Dr Fothering was rather thrilled by that fact. ‘What are you going to call him? He is a boy, isn’t he?’
    ‘Isn’t he just the most beautiful baby you’ve ever seen?’ cooed Eve, ‘Oh Dr Fothering… Michael, have you ever seen a baby quite as beautiful as Josiah?’
    ‘Is that what you’re calling him, “Josiah”?’
    ‘Yes, that’s his name!’ declared Eve, eagerly. ‘We’re calling him “Josiah” after the great Jewish child king. Oh Gibson, are you thinking what I’m thinking?’
    Gibson was not.
    ‘We were just about to perform a baptism ceremony, weren’t we? We were trying to work out what religion to bring him up in, nothing strange, no funny cult or anything, but I want him to have virtues and know how to pray, for you must know as a psychiatrist how important it is to pray!’
    ‘I didn’t know you were religious, Eve.’
    ‘I don’t think you ever asked me.’
    ‘But you don’t pray, do you?’
    ‘Dr Fothering, Michael, surely after two years you realise I live a life of unceasing prayer, which is,