‘The occasion has never arisen,’ said Angus. ‘But I imagine that I could. On the other hand, I think that she would have to be the boss. I don’t think she would play second fiddle.’

‘No,’ said Matthew. He looked at Angus with interest, and continued, ‘Angus, don’t you think that you and Domenica are … are an event waiting to happen?’

Angus looked at him in astonishment. ‘You mean …’

‘Yes,’ said Matthew. ‘Listen, I can tell you about marriage – it’s great, it really is. You feel somehow so complete. Yes, that’s the word for it – complete. It’s like having two moieties united.’

‘Moieties?’

‘A moiety is a portion or a part. A half.’

‘I see.’ Angus wondered whether one might call one’s spouse one’s ‘better moiety’. That sounded better than ‘better half’, which was an expression he did not like at all. It reminded him of golf clubs. Not that there was anything wrong with golf clubs – it was just that sometimes one heard things in the bar of a golf club that sounded as if they belonged there. Not that I’ve ever been in a golf club, he thought. ‘So you are happy being married?’ Angus asked.

‘Yes. Blissfully.’ Matthew reached out and touched Angus on the forearm. ‘Why don’t you give it a try, Angus? You’d love it.’

‘She’d never look at me,’ he said. ‘Not in that way.’

Matthew shook his head vigorously. ‘Of course she would! You’re a handsome man, Angus. You’re talented, witty. She would hardly be able to believe her luck.’

Angus raised his head. Big Lou had sniggered at the counter. He had heard it.

‘So what’s funny about that?’ he called over to her.

‘Nothing,’ said Big Lou quickly. ‘It’s just that you men need to think twice before you assume that we women are grateful for your company. It’s not always like that, I can tell you.’

‘Don’t listen to her,’ whispered Matthew. But Angus was listening.

4. Auden and Burns, and Bertie

Irene Pollock stood at the window of her flat at 44 Scotland Street and thought about identity. She had recently walked past a sign outside a church that read: Consider your Life; Think of who you are. Irene had little time for churches, which she regarded as hotbeds of reaction – if reaction can have hotbeds – but she found this message curiously affecting. Yes, perhaps it was something that we all should do from time to time – examine our lives. And now, back in her flat, with Bertie at school and little Ulysses halfway through his morning sleep, her thoughts focused on who she was.