'We' here being Adèle and her old buddies from college days, gathered for their reunion after half a century. Half a century! It can't be; as the woman said, 'I was at Woodstock, for Christ's sake! I peed in a field!'
Anyway, read about Adèle's reunion; it's headed by a terrific poem, written by Wendy Cope about the same occasion. Scroll down for the St Hilda's college gates, through which I have passed many a time and oft on my way to visit or fetch out my then newly beloved.