Alfred Cayley

In the novel N or M?, Alfred Cayley and his wife are staying at Sans Souci in Leahampton. Cayley is a middle-aged invalid or pretends to be and is constantly ministered to by his attentive wife who constantly plies him with mufflers and rugs and positions him in appropriate places in the hotel, out of the sun, or out of the draught. Major Bletchley, a fellow guest, calls him "a walking chemist's shop. Talks of nothing but his health and the treatment he's tried and the drugs he's taking". But he is equally ready to rattle off, with statistics and figures about how prepared Germany is for war, with her scientific methods of substituting for raw materials. He disagrees with the other guests who think the war will end soon. He believes it will last for another six years.