My behaviour for the next week was impeccable. Each time I would announce that I was going out, I was given instructions as to my behaviour and time of return, with some form of admonition such as: “If you are late, your bottom will know about it!”
Towards the end of the third week, one of Aunt Agnes’s friends, a Mrs McGregor, visited one afternoon. She had a daughter, Avril, of my own age and the two of us were allowed to go down to the beach, with the requirement to be back for tea by a quarter to five sharp.