Once again, we took tea with Clement. This has become a civilised feature of Tepe Houses life. Clement took the opportunity to caution us that, even though rough men (and the rougher the better) have been his preferred choice of playmate since the end of sugar rationing, he doesn’t like to be labelled as ‘gay’. We took this to mean that he frets that our neighbourly friendship and uninhibited demeanour will cast an unwelcome light on him. We agreed to keep his sexual identity secret, since we think it isn’t much of a secret to keep.