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junior school saw him as the incorrigible of St Thomas’ College. No doubt it galled the school staff that he would now be representing its name abroad.
    There was a mix of stubbornness and kindness in Cassius. I never knew where these qualities came from. He never referred to his parents, and if he had he would probably have invented a scenario to make himself distinct from them. In fact, during the journey the three of us had no real interest in one another’s background. Ramadhin would speak now and then of the careful advice his parents had given him about his health. And as for me, all the other two knew was that I had an ‘aunt’ in First Class. It had been Cassius who recommended we keep our backgrounds to ourselves. He liked the idea, I think, of being self-sufficient. That is how he saw our little gang existing on the ship. He put up with Ramadhin’s domestic anecdotes because of his physical weakness. There was a gentle democracy in Cassius. In retrospect, he was only against the power of Caesar.
    I suppose he changed me during those twenty-one days, persuading me to interpret anything that took place around us with his quizzical or upside-down perspective. Twenty-one days is a very brief period in a life, but I would never unlearn the whisper of Cassius. As the years went by I would hear of him or read about his career, but I would never meet him again. It was Ramadhin I would keep in touch with, visiting him in Mill Hill, where his family lived, going to matinee movies with him and his sister, or to the Boat Show in Earls Court, where we would try to imagine the deeds that Cassius would commit if he were in our company.

 
    EXAMINATION BOOKLET: OVERHEARD CONVERSATIONS, DAY 1 TO DAY 11
     
‘ Don’t look at him, you hear me? Celia? Don’t ever look at the swine again! ’
‘ My sister has a strange name. Massoumeh. It means “immaculate”, “protected from sins”. But it can also mean “defenceless” .’
‘ I have a specific dislike, I am sorry to say, of the Sealyham terrier .’
‘ I thought she was a bluestocking, at first .’
‘ We use fruit as a fish poison sometimes .’
‘ Pickpockets always come out during a storm .’
‘ This man said he could cross a desert eating just a date and one onion a day .’
‘ I suspect, because of her language skills, she was scooped up by Whitehall .’
‘ I’m ruined by that singleton! ’
‘ I told your husband when he offered me a three-day-old oyster that it was more dangerous to me than having a sexual act when I was seventeen .’

The Hold
     
    LARRY DANIELS WAS one of those who ate with us at the Cat’s Table. A compact, well-muscled man, he always wore a tie, always had his sleeves rolled up. Born to a burgher family in Kandy, he had become a botanist and spent much of his adult life studying forest and plant cultures in Sumatra and Borneo. This was to be his first journey to Europe. Initially the only thing we knew about him was that he had an overwhelming crush on my cousin Emily, who would barely give him the time of day. Because of this lack of interest he had gone out of his way to befriend me. I suppose he had seen me laughing with her and her friends by the pool, which was where Emily could usually be found. Mr Daniels asked me if I would like to see his ‘garden’ on the ship. I suggested I bring my two cohorts, and he agreed, though it was clear he wanted me to himself so he could quiz me about my cousin’s likes and dislikes.
    Whenever Cassius and Ramadhin and I were with Mr Daniels, we’d spend the time asking him to buy us exotic cordials at the pool bar. Or we’d persuade him to make up a foursome at one of the games on deck. He was an intelligent, curious man, but we were more interested in testing our strength by wrestling with him, all three of us attacking him simultaneously, then leaving him gasping on a jute mat while we ran off, sweating, to dive into the pool.
    It was only at dinner that I was unprotected from Mr