‘He’s a Jesuit in BA. A nice man, a little pleased with himself, but nice all the same . . . He was talking about the different kinds of love in ancient Greece – eros, the sexual love of a man and a woman; agape, a general love of humanity; and philia, the love of friends; and how within a marriage eros should develop into agape and if possible philia. So I asked him whether the Greeks had a word for love of parents and children and he said there was but it was used less which seems strange because when I think about dying I realise that I’ve been so lucky to have loved and been loved by you and Mum and Henry and all the children, and of course Jimmy; and though I would like to have lived longer, to see the children grow up, I really can’t complain because the life I’ve had has been so happy.’

Louisa seems tired. Jomier prepares to leave.

‘Come tomorrow, will you?’

‘Of course.’

‘Mum tends to come in the morning.’

‘I’ll come in the afternoon.’

‘Jimmy’s gone to stay with Mum. I hope you don’t mind.’

‘Of course I don’t mind.’

‘I couldn’t bear to think of him alone in a hotel, and Mum’s got plenty of room.’

Jomier leaves St Chad’s troubled by scruples. Did he say he would come in the afternoon because he wished to avoid seeing Tilly? Or was it simply to make it more agreeable for Louisa by spreading the visits out over the day? Louisa assumes that he remains on bad terms with her mother. She is afraid that he might mind that Jimmy is staying with Tilly and Max in Phillimore Gardens. She tells him how to avoid running into her at Chad’s. This assumption would have been correct the day before but now Jomier is constrained by the terms of his agreement with He Who Might Be. He must forgive.

When he gets home he telephones Tilly. She says: ‘It’s so awful.’ Then: ‘What do you think?’

‘I think we should all meet.’

‘Of course.’

‘Can I drop by for a drink?’

‘When?’

‘This evening.’

‘Of course, though Max –’

‘Max should be there too. And Henry. I’ll call him.’

Henry will visit Louisa in Chad’s on his way home from work and then come on to his mother’s house in Phillimore Gardens. Jomier drives there from Hammersmith. He climbs the steps and rings the doorbell. It is the first time he has been to the home of his ex-wife. She opens the door. Tilly’s face is drawn. Her expression is puzzled. Jomier enters the hall tiled with buffed Carrara marble.