CHRONICLES OF AN ANGLOPHILE - CRÓNICAS DE UN ANGLÓFILO -

  Charlotte ordered the cake rather hastily from La Esperanza confectioner’s, but when she specifically said that she did not want any candles, the woman in charge of the shop, a pleasant lady with the peculiar accent of Grazalema, said: “I don’t understand it at all. Whoever heard of a birthday cake without candles?” And Charlotte insisted, without going into details: “It will be quite enough if you put a large eighty in meringue on top of the cake,” was all the explanation Charlotte gave Rosario, for that was the woman’s name. At last, the great day arrived. Andrew came late for luncheon, having made the most of the morning at the office so that he would not have to work in the afternoon. John returned from Gibraltar at lunchtime. The Smiths arrived at teatime. Jimmy Smith arrived that very afternoon with his father James, who now leaned upon a walking stick but entered Villa Claire with the same authority as ever, and with his mother, Patricia, who remained as lovely as always a...