“No,” Marco corrected him, “I probably did sleep with her that night. I’m not disputing that we had a fling. But it certainly didn’t happen the way she describes it.”

That “probably” of his was a mistake; at any rate it gave Sauer a little crack to slither through. “Do please correct me if I’m wrong,” he emailed back, “but it sounds as though there’s some uncertainty in your memory about the events of that night. Is that in fact the case?” To which Marco retorted impatiently: “Of course there’s some uncertainty about that night! It was forty years ago! But I’m damn sure whatever happened was fully consensual.” Already he was beginning to feel pestered—angry at being drawn in even this far. “I understand, of course,” Sauer wrote soothingly, “memories can be slippery, can’t they? As I said, we’d be very open to something by you presenting your side of the story. We’re always terribly concerned to be balanced. Do please let me know if you’d like to write a riposte of some sort. Perhaps you might want to remind people that all kinds of behaviors we condemn now were considered perfectly acceptable in those days. I think that’s a point of view many of our readers would sympathize with.”

Enraged, Marco typed: “Go fuck yourself you slimy sewer rat. All I have to say is that if you print this, I’ll sue you and your shitty excuse for a newspaper for every penny you’re worth.”

He deleted the words, however. He wasn’t the son of a barrister for nothing; he understood the dangers of emailing abuse and threats to a newspaper features editor who already appeared to be out for his blood. Instead he wrote, “Thanks, but my point is that I never indulged in those ‘behaviours’: never wanted to, never needed to, never felt they were ‘acceptable’ even in ‘those days.’ As I said in my first email, the article is defamatory. Really I have nothing further to add.”

There was no immediate reply, and after a while Marco began to feel cautiously hopeful that his point had been taken. Libel laws being stricter in England than the States, he knew the ­Messenger would have to be careful. It seemed possible this man Sauer had genuinely thought he might not mind the article, and that Marco had scared him off just by showing that he did. Sauer’s response, when it finally came, didn’t entirely dispel this optimism: “Thank you for this, Marco, enormously appreciated. As I say, just wanted to take your temperature. Will discuss with my senior editor tomorrow. Have a good night!”