Jomier’s grandchildren are well disciplined: only little Ysabel, as she sings carols, lets her eyes wander towards her pile of presents. They come to the last verse of the last carol – Adeste Fideles, ‘Oh Come all Ye Faithful’. Louisa then looks towards Doña Adelina, enthroned on an armchair. Muy bien. That is the signal. The children, ‘joyful and triumphant’, make for the piles and open their presents. The grown-ups linger. Jomier readies himself for the polite thanks of his grandchildren for his disappointing gifts. Jomier is not good at choosing presents for others. He finds it impossible to imagine what they might like. It was always Tilly who did the Christmas shopping. Jomier had only to buy a present for her. Tilly always changed it. In the end, she had bought his gifts to her herself: he had only to wrap them up.

Nor do others find it easy to choose presents for him. A silver-framed photograph of the five grandchildren from Louisa. A leather humidor from Jimmy. A maté gourd and silver straw from one of Jimmy’s brothers. A gaucho shirt from the other. A tie from Doña Adelina. Jomier will bin them all when he gets back to England. All except the photograph. He will put that on the baby grand piano that he keeps tuned for Louisa’s occasional visits to London.

In the cool of the evening, the boys go riding with their uncles. Jomier and Louisa go for a walk. ‘I am so glad you came,’ she says. ‘It gives you a chance to get to know the children.’

‘They are enchanting,’ says Jomier.

‘Not too like the von Trapps?’

‘The von Trapps?’

‘The Sound of Music.’

Jomier laughs. ‘They’re no worse for that.’

‘You won’t have had time to see it, but they’re all quite different. Fernando is like his father which is good but Roberto is more curious, intellectually, and so is Lala; they bicker terribly but that’s because they’re so alike. Nunci is just like her granny Adelina – another despot in the making – and Ysabel . . . I don’t know. She’s not really like anyone much.’

‘They are enchanting,’ says Jomier again.

‘It’s a wonderful country to bring up children if you’re not poor. There’s the sun and so much space. I watch out for some of the less attractive qualities that you find out here so that I can nip them in the bud.’

‘What sort of thing?’

‘You must have noticed it in Jimmy and Doña Adelina – in all of them, in fact. The way they treat the servants. An arrogance. A contempt for the poor – “losers”, they would call them though not in my presence.’

‘The spirit of the conquistadors,’ said Jomier. ‘Everyone starts with nothing so the poor are only getting what they deserve.’