“Don’t you know anyone in the house who’ll give you a shakedown?”
“No, sir.”
“They only moved in last week,” said the midwife. “They don’t know nobody yet.”
Chandler hesitated a moment awkwardly, then he went up to the man and said:
“I’m very sorry this has happened.”
He held out his hand and the man, with an instinctive glance at his own to see if it was clean, shook it.
“Thank you, sir.”
Philip shook hands with him too. Chandler told the midwife to come and fetch the certificate in the morning. They left the house and walked along together in silence.
“It upsets one a bit at first, doesn’t it?” said Chandler at last.
“A bit,” answered Philip.