For the first time in his life William had lost a day at Grimshaw's to move the furniture, and for six months he had brooded over the lost time.

This last move had planted them in Botany Street, five minutes' walk from Chook's shop.

At first Mrs Partridge had fretted, finding little consolation in the new ham-and-beef shop on Botany Road; and then, little by little, she had become attached to the neighbourhood.

She had been surprised to find that entertainment came to her door unsought, in the form of constant arrivals and departures among the neighbours.

And each of them was the beginning or the end of a mystery, which she probed to the bottom with the aid of the postman, the baker, the butcher, and the tradesmen who were left lamenting with their bills unpaid.