Sparing Coco the Joke-o

I have a cheque for £55 to pay in the next time I go to Ashbourne. It’s a little royalty payment for a couple of pictures I took centuries ago. It isn’t the money that’s important, though, it’s the fact that I might get to pay it in at Coco’s window.

I’ve thought of asking her to marry me, you know. I have – on the understanding that she won’t have too long to wait, and then she can inherit all my debts. So will I? No, of course I won’t. I’m far too much the English gentleman to presume upon a Chinese lady’s sense of humour. Besides, she just might agree, and the terror consequent upon that eventuality would surely send me to the next world long before the event came to fruition.