Jomier thinks about these things and feels an emotion he cannot define. Does he approve or disapprove of modern morals? He debates the question with his alter ego – Dr Jekyll in conversazione with Mr Hyde. But which is which? In Stevenson’s story, Mr Hyde is the dark side of Dr Jekyll – passionate and angry rather than sensible and scientific. But today’s sensible and scientific Dr Jekyll would read the Guardian and favour sex as a recreation from the earliest age; while it is the irrational Mr Hyde with his primitive superstitions who bundles sex with marriage, procreation and unromantic love.

Ned wants to pee. Jomier is grateful for this alert. Ned’s potty training is not as established as his mother would have the world believe. Tracey, the nanny, has told Jomier that he can count on a four-minute interval between Ned’s announcement of a call of nature and his answer to that call. The timing has been proved to be imprecise. There have been accidents. Jomier is sympathetic towards his grandson. Soon he too will be incontinent and have accidents too.

Jomier and Ned take their leave of Tessa and Tatty. They stop off at the public lavatory by the entrance to the playground. Ned pees. Then the dawdling walk home. Jomier hands Ned over to Alena, the au pair, who has prepared tea for Ned and Samantha – penne with peas and snippets of ham. She offers Jomier a cup of tea. Jomier would like a cup of tea but making conversation in broken English with Alena is too high a price to pay. He politely declines. He stoops to kiss his grandson, says ‘bye-bye’ in a babyish voice, and leaves.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jomier is invited to dinner by Ruth to meet her friend Judith. Jomier has known Ruth for many years. There was almost something between them. Almost. But not quite. She is not a former lover but a might-have-been. An also-ran. That is a sufficient basis for lifelong friendship: women never forget the men who have fancied them. The friendship went into abeyance when Jomier married Tilly because Tilly could not stand Ruth. She went reluctantly to Ruth’s dinner parties but never asked Ruth back. Ruth was gushy, blowsy, not in their league. The friendship revived when Jomier was cut loose from Tilly and became that rare commodity, an unattached man. Ruth is a matchmaker. She introduces Jomier to her single friends and her single friends to Jomier. Ruth herself is divorced but has tethered a presentable lover. He is tall and languid and was once an important person in the BBC. He does not have much money but, at Ruth’s stage in life, one takes what one can get. No one knows what he does now and no one likes to ask.