A very sad affair

I decided to go on a cheap day return to London (it turned out there was nothing cheap about it and doing it in a day nearly killed me). A woman got on: friendly, gorgeous, about 40. She said she was going to a party at The Dorchester on Park Lane that "should be a good night".

She opened her book. It was called The Trouble with Marriage. Then her phone rang. It was incredibly loud. Immediately she

turned to the window. One of the first things I heard was "…cake and eat it" and then, "Don't you dare say those things. It's been five years and what do you do? You go back home to your wife. And what do I do? I get on the train and go back to the country."

She spent the three-hour train journey whispering into her phone and sobbing.

I wondered what the man's wife was doing. Cooking Sunday lunch, perhaps, while he took the dog for a very long walk?

The conversation was riveting, but the sobbing was terrible. I