Arthur MacKenzie is similar in age to Gerald, although his wife is several years younger. The MacKenzies have dined with them before, but Isabel never knows quite how to speak to Mary. She worries that she is too condescending, or else too familiar, and it is so difficult to find the right pitch and tone with someone with whom one has little in common. But their husbands are on good terms, so she makes the effort, putting to one side her own discomfort in order to be hospitable. She has taken care with the menu – nothing too fancy or challenging – but is now bothered about her choices. Fish, because it’s Friday and old habits die hard. It had seemed a good idea two days ago. She has no idea how the men came to know one another initially. Gerald’s club, probably. Or the party. Arthur MacKenzie is the sort of man who aspires to make something of himself – so the Tory party is a natural home. Gerald and Ralph, of course, are party men by blood, even more so than by temperament or inclination.