Saturday morning. The first Saturday of the month. This is the day when Jomier sees to his finances. The custom dates from the days when he still worked and could not see to his finances on weekdays. Jomier was a barrister and barristers are self-employed. The clerk in his chambers had done some preliminary accounting, deducting the rent of the chambers and his own commission from Jomier’s fees as they came in. But it had been up to Jomier himself to make returns for income tax and VAT. It was a process made easier thanks to the invention of the personal computer and accounting software. Jomier enjoyed it. He liked coming up with formulas on Microsoft Excel which would work out the VAT due on a gross sum; or, at the touch of a button, tell him what tax he should pay on a year’s income; but even before he had owned a computer, Jomier had preferred to spend his Saturday mornings sitting at his desk doing his accounts to going with Tilly to the Portobello Road or taking his children to Holland Park.

Recent developments on the Internet now make it possible for Jomier to study his bank balances and investments online. His investments are in his pension fund. It is not large. If Jomier had been a civil servant like his father, he would have a generous pension paid for by the taxpayer, based on his final salary and linked to inflation. Since Jomier is not a civil servant, his pension depends upon what he has paid into his fund over the years. Early in his career as a lawyer it was difficult to pay in any money at all. His fees were modest and his costs were great. Jomier’s parents and Tilly’s parents had given them some money towards their first home but for that home to be in Notting Hill the sum had had to be augmented by a mortgage. Jomier did the sums and would come down from his study at midday on Saturday in despair. He would hand a printout of a spreadsheet to Tilly to make her cognisant of their financial plight. It would remain on the kitchen table unread.