So I proposed to simply give Evelyn the money.

Calculated properly, six years, at the guideline rate against my actual income, which came to a number with a comma in an uncomfortable place.

And Evelyn said no, and it took her four months to explain why, and when she did it was this:

“If I take a cheque from you for the six years, then the six years have been bought.

“And every time we have a bad week for the rest of our lives — and we will, we are going to have some extremely bad weeks — one of us is going to know that the worst thing that ever happened to me has a price on it that was agreed and paid.