A further inconsistency: Judith’s mixed feelings about her ex-husband, Beresford Grant. They have talked much in Venice about what might have happened if Judith had not married so young; if Jomier had sent that letter; or if Jomier had re-entered her life after she had split up with Beresford ahead of Alfredo and Giles and whoever. ‘We might even have had children.’ However, Jomier notices, or thinks he notices, a difference in her speculation of what might have been with what she wished had been which went with what would have been if she had been more worldly-wise. Despite her yogic detachment, Judith is unable to prevent a look of annoyance coming on to her face when the talk turns to her successor, Beresford’s present wife Bridget. It is clear that Judith regards her as in some sense a usurper. It is somehow wrong that Bridget has the run of the houses in London, Gloucestershire and the South of France. Judith tells Jomier rather more than he wants to hear about Beresford’s triumphs in the City: how he had teamed up with Izzy Raub to form Raub Asset Management in the 1980s, then sold it to Deutsche Bank at the top of the market.

Judith is clearly impressed by Beresford’s success as a financier. She kicks herself for not seeing more clearly which side her bread was buttered and somehow arranging to have extra-marital sex on the side. ‘I was so stupidly idealistic.’ But what about Beresford’s carbon footprint? The three houses? The six gas-guzzling cars. Jomier has challenged her with this inconsistency. She has frowned and pondered. Jomier feels that he has committed a solecism. Inconsistency, like menstruation, is a female attribute that one knows about but does not mention. But Jomier has got it wrong. The frowning and pondering is not an admission of inconsistency: it is expression of annoyance that she must apply her mind to showing that Jomier is wrong and she is right.

In due course Judith presents her argument. Beresford’s three houses have live-in staff. His cars have drivers. If the staff did not live in Beresford’s houses they would live elsewhere. If the drivers did not drive Beresford’s cars they would drive cars of their own. Their dwellings might be smaller than Beresford’s mansions but they would be less ecological: Beresford has put solar panels on the roof of Le Nid de l’Eveque. Nor would their old bangers be as fuel-efficient as Beresford’s Range Rover or S-Class Mercedes. Thus Beresford’s overall carbon footprint is much the same as anyone else’s.