But of course it wasn’t. ‘There is just one tiny thing you can help me out with,’ she remembered. ‘Apparently he likes to be certain that someone will volunteer to –’

‘No. Definitely no. No. It wouldn’t work with me anyway. I’m not suggestible enough. You volunteer.’

‘I’ll be taking round the cheese dip.’

‘I’ll take round the cheese dip.’

‘All right.’

‘You’re more the sort of person he’d like to work with.’

‘Because I’m more suggestible, you mean?’

I knew what I meant. ‘Because you’re more co-operative.’

‘All right. I’ll do it.’

‘And anyway you’ll enjoy it more than I would.’

‘Barney, I’ve said I’ll do it. You take round the dip. It suits me.’

She couldn’t have been easier about it.