"Ursula wanted to know about how Michael was coping with Jill's death. Ursula knew that he had a regiment of women looking after him. I told him about Emma, the housekeeper-cook who had been married to two writers. She seemed to suit him perfectly. "Emma told me that he had stopped walking on the Heath [it had been a daily ritual]. But with me he's been walking. He walks ahead of us teasing that we can't keep up with him and Emma keeps poking me in the ribs and saying, 'This is a performance. He hasn't done this in months."