“No, I’ll lose this flat,” he said. “I’ve thought of that. I think I’ve thought of everything. The funny thing is, I feel quite excited at the prospect. Of not having it, I mean, the income, this place, private means.”

“But why?”

“Well, since you ask, for you.”

“For me?”

“You don’t like it. And I like you too much to keep on doing something you don’t like. Or maybe I should say I love you too much for that.”

Who could ask for a fairer commitment?

The following day we both spent phoning airlines and calling at the kind of travel agents that looked as if their only reason for existing was to undercut each other’s prices. I’d managed to persuade Silver that wasting his money, throwing it away on first-class seats for people who’d be too worried to appreciate them, wouldn’t be an ethical way of getting rid of it. Give it to the charity you think the most worthy cause, I said. You used to tell people who stole or cheated to get money that they should give a tithe to the poor.

“I don’t tell them that anymore,” he said. “If it wouldn’t sound moralistic beyond belief, I’d tell them not to do it at all.”

“Give it to something worthwhile.”

He did. After we had parted. It was a long time before I heard that he had given half of what remained to the famine relief organization he now works for. But that day we went shopping for cheap seats to Sydney and in the end managed to get three singles and one return for rather more but not much more than Silver gave for the passports. Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 were impossible. We had to settle for midweek, less popular days for travel, when seats were cheaper. September 22 and 23, the Wednesday and Thursday. The woman in the travel agents pointed out that if we had booked Apex flights three months ahead, the price would have come down far more. We even talked of it. But there were too many imponderables. Would Andrew stand being cooped up in there for a further three months? By December it would be cold. Would the heating in 4E function for the winter without servicing? And what of the woman who had seen Andrew shopping in Westbourne Grove? We had heard no more of this but that didn’t mean nothing more had happened. The police would certainly have questioned her. They might even know by now that it was likely their quarry was living in the Bayswater-Paddington area. The obvious best thing was to get them away as soon as possible.