Jomier’s mother and father had made ‘sacrifices’ so that their only child should receive a private education. Jomier père had been a civil servant. A high-flyer in the Home Office who in the event did not fly quite as high as had been expected. They lived in Sussex. He would take the train each day from Haywards Heath to Victoria and return in the evening. At the weekend he would play golf. Jomier’s mother did not work. She was pre-Betty Friedan. Pre-Germaine Greer. There was some ‘family money’ which for a time filled the gap between income and expenditure. Jomier père only looked cursorily at his bank statements or letters from his broker. He assumed that providence would provide the means for him to lead the life that his father had led before him. He made some economies after the war: he sacked the cook and in the evening ate what his wife had gleaned from Mrs Beeton. But other expenses were non-negotiable. Membership of the Garrick. Glyndebourne. A Humber. School fees. They were covered by his salary from the Home Office and, after his retirement, his inflation-proof Civil Service pension. When he died, Jomier’s mother moved into a flat in Holland Park to be near to her son. Then to an old people’s home. Then to a hospital. Then to a coffin. Then to a grave.

Had they been worth it? The school fees? Would Jomier have won a place at Oxford if he had not been taught by good teachers in small classes? Would he have made the right kind of friends? Would he have got a place in chambers in the Inns of Court? Would he have met Tilly? Would he have fallen in love with Tilly? Would Tilly have fallen in love with him? No. If Jomier’s education had been paid for by the state rather than by his father, he would be a different person. He knows this. His father and mother had known it. In England a private education is the peg hammered into the rock face that prevents a free fall into the abyss of social indistinction. It is what differentiates hoi aristoi from hoi polloi; the patrician from the plebeian; les gens biens from the canaille; the gentleman from the common man.