I saw Belle so infrequently that whenever we were together I simply wanted her to myself. She was, after all, my favourite friend in all the world, and I was pretty sure that she felt the same about me. So I was a ball of fury when I noticed that just about everyone else at the conference behaved as if they loved Belle as much as I did, and she seemed just as happy to reciprocate their devoted affection with the same amount of enthusiasm as she did mine!

I was further annoyed by a sales rep speaker who rambled on in the mistaken belief that I knew nothing about conferences. I considered telling him that I had been behind the first of the series that we were now attending, but I couldn’t be bothered.