It's easy to think of a belt as functional in a raincoat.

But of course it isn't in the least.

If the cloth is waterproof, a belt won't make it more so, and if it isn't a belt offers no remedy.

Hancock thought close-fitting mackintoshes were a terrible idea, because they made you so hot.

Actually, is hot bad?

But even if it is, aesthetically and emotionally a mackintosh needs a belt, and it needs the belt to be done up properly.

It's being done up properly here, by those practised, expert, elegant movements of Angela's hands.

Soon, yes, she will be warm, very warm.

But also, whether complement or compensation, she will also begin to revel in that almost overwhelming sense of security and confidence - actually empowerment is the word - that for some unfathomable reason is always conjured by disciplining the waist.

H.