When All Is Said

The time is 9:20 pm, the fourth toast is to Kevin, and the drink is a whiskey, Jefferson’s Presidential Select. This was Kevin’s last Christmas present to Maurice. Kevin always sends him nice whiskeys for his birthday; Maurice feels respect and comradery for their makers. After Sadie died, he found that she’d kept all the boxes and made the silk lining of one into a purse for her hairpins, which he has with him today. He is having the boxes turned into ladders for Kevin’s children’s bunks.

On his way to the toilet, Maurice sees a dent he remembers making in the wall by mistake when working as a child, distracted by the grandeur of the grandfather clock. Hugh Dollard was civil to him on this one occasion.

Back in the bar, Robert has dropped by for the awards event, which is now on dessert. He leaves, saying goodbye to Svetlana, whom he has helped in the past. She tells Maurice she likes working for Emily.

Maurice remembers watching Sadie bathing Kevin as a four-year-old, unseen. She encouraged him to love himself, which he found extraordinary.