As Godfrey pottered around his flat, he saw, from his windows, the lights shining in the cottage’s sitting room. He was pleased that Oliver seemed to have stayed with Antonia for the whole evening. She might have cooked a meal, perhaps, and they would have enjoyed eating it together. Oliver had taken a bottle of wine, and fruit and cheese.
He went into his bedroom to get ready for bed, and he saw the lights of the cottage’s sitting room dim to a soft amber glow, as if the two people in there had thought it might be rather nice to sit together in the firelight. Godfrey, who had a strong sense of propriety, drew his curtains very firmly at this point. He would not have dreamed of doing anything so intrusive or impolite as staring at the cottage, to see if a bedroom light went on.
But he could not help hoping very strenuously that a bedroom light did go on and, as he got into his own bed, he was smiling at the thought of Oliver and Antonia together in the firelight.