Louisa catches his eye and gives an amused look as if to say: ‘I know Fernando’s a bore but so are all the boys of his age in Buenos Aires and he’s so proud of you and pleased you are here. It gives them great prestige at school to have un abogado inglés as their grandfather.’

Doña Adelina gets to her feet. It is time for bed. Embraces. ‘Happy Christmas.’ Louisa hugs her father. ‘Is everything all right?’

‘Everything is perfect. Happy Christmas.’

Christmas morning. Jimmy takes Jomier on a tour of the estancia. Jomier feels that the shaking of his liver and kidneys as the hard-sprung old Land Rover bumps over the pampas is doing him good. Jimmy talks about the political situation in Argentina. Cristina Kirchner is a big disappointment as president; her husband Néstor still calls the shots. Her attempt to increase the tax on soybean exports was iniquitous: Jimmy’s uncle led the opposition to the measure in the Senate. Jimmy’s family are big in soybeans. Do they cut down rainforests to plant more soy beans? So far as he knows, Jomier has never eaten a soybean so cannot understand the world’s insatiable appetite for soybeans. He would ask Jimmy but prefers to avoid giving him a pretext to go on talking. But Jimmy is a mind-reader. He tells Jomier that soybeans are the world’s most versatile vegetal source of protein. Soya milk. Caramel. Tofu. It is also the staple of most animal foodstuffs. There would be no hamburgers served in McDonald’s in Jakarta were it not for soybeans grown in Argentina. By using soybeans as a supplement to their diet of grass Jimmy can double the number of cattle on the estancia. He has diversified into Kobe-style beef by crossing the Wagyu bull that he imported from Japan with locally bred Aberdeen Angus. He exports it to the US where Kobe-style steaks are all the rage.

An Anglo-Christmas dinner. Turkey. Sausages. Stuffing. Bread sauce. All the trimmings. Mendozan white, Mendozan red. Mumm Cordon Rouge with the Christmas pudding. Treacly black coffee. Cohiba cigars. Crackers. Excitement. Shrieks from the little girls. They withdraw to the living room. Mounds of gifts rise from the floor. Before they are opened, the family sings carols around the tree. Louisa plays the piano. Jomier recalls her music lessons with Miss Pearson in Princedale Road; the steady progress from Grade 1 to Grade 8. A wave of nostalgia for the dark damp streets of Holland Park breaks over him: celebrating Christmas in the heat of high summer feels wrong. And the sausages served with the turkey were gristly and spicy, not crisp and bland and bready as they are in England.