O'Donnell gave Alcorn his familiar long-lipped grin, looking, with his thin gentle face and neat brush of ermine-white hair, like an aristocratic Irish saint.
"You missed a pleasant meeting," O'Donnell said. "I've just signed a refund release to Charlie here, and a pleasure it was."
The awareness that they had been calmed before he'd arrived left Alcorn speechless.
"Really shouldn't have accepted," Mulhall said sheepishly. Mulhall was a big, solid man, bald and paunchy and, when his normal instincts were controlled, an argumentative tyrant. "Niggling technicality, I say. Shouldn't have taken a refund, but Sean here insisted."
They laughed together, like children sharing a joke.
"The claim was justified," O'Donnell said firmly. "Once Charlie's secretary explained the case, there was no doubt."
Mulhall grinned at Alcorn. "Remarkable girl, Janice Wynn. She's waiting in Sean's office. Wants to meet you, Philip."
They went toward the lift with their arms about each other, sharing an all-too-brief moment of companionship.
Alcorn hesitated in front of the closed door of O'Donnell's office.