Antonia, who was occupying the third seat in the row, had not heard Angus’s remark. ‘Did Angus say something witty?’ she asked. There was an air of anxiety about her question, as if she feared that she was somehow excluded by what had gone before. She had tried to sit next to Angus on the journey, but Domenica had pointed out that while Angus occupied Seat 6A, her own boarding pass very clearly said 6B, and Antonia’s, she assumed, said 6C.

‘That’s notional,’ said Antonia. ‘We have seats 6A to 6C at our disposal – that’s all the letters mean.’

Domenica was not to be so easily overruled. ‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘When an airline gives you a seat number, then that is where they want you to sit. They don’t say, “Please sit somewhere around here.” They say, “You are to sit in this exact seat.” It is quite clear – unambiguously so, if I may venture an opinion.’

Antonia had listened to this thin-lipped. ‘I don’t think …’ she began.

‘Moreover,’ Domenica continued, ‘if people were to change seats off their own bat, then the weighting arrangements in the plane could be disturbed. Airlines put people in certain places in order to balance the aircraft. I was told that once by a pilot of my acquaintance. He explained it quite clearly. They do not want people to shift about – therein lie the seeds of anarchy.’

This discussion, which had taken place while they were at Edinburgh airport, waiting to board the waiting plane, was polite, but revealed the fault lines which lay perilously close to the surface of the entire outing. Domenica knew that Antonia had her eye on Angus, and was aware, too, of her neighbour’s determination somehow to snare the artist on this Italian trip. But resolute and calculating as this intention might be, so too was Domenica determined that Angus should not be enticed by this woman; if anybody were to take on Angus, then it would be she who would do the taking on, and that, she had decided, was what she now should do. And in the pursuit of this objective, it was clear that at the very start of the trip she should sit next to him; this would give her a vital head start on Antonia, who would have to address any remarks she wished to make to Angus either through or across her.

This position had proved to be highly advantageous. Thus, when Antonia had, by way of conversation, asked Angus whether he could see the Alps through his window, she herself had been able to provide an answer. ‘No, I don’t think he can,’ she said. ‘Particularly since we are still currently above the Netherlands.’