Sublime

Why, then, would Peter pick these moments, his moments of greatest infamy, as his grounds for qualification? Because he knows what Christ’s suffering purchased for him. Total forgiveness, total security, total justification. Peter brings to mind Christ’s death on the cross as the central point in his own pastoral vision and connects this vision to

“But we are the good guys. Aren’t we, Uncle?” “I hope so. I hope we are.”

proved himself in all respects a worthy minister at the sacred altar of friendship.’

‘A lot of men sleep around,’ Xiu said. ‘A lot of men who aren’t married to Michelle Cutler. She’s almost certainly got “hitman” in her phone book somewhere. Right between “hairdresser” and “homeopath”.’ ‘I’m not convinced.’ ‘You’re probably right,’ Miller said. ‘I doubt she has a homeopath.’

‘This is Thomas,’ said Grace, without explanation. She stood close by the boy with the ease of long acquaintance, and seemed to Thomas they were in some way ranged against him – that it was possible to make out some connective tissue dissolving between himself and Grace, and re-forming between the other two.

The daughters he and his partner adopted are Eritrean, so he is touchy about anything having to do with Africa, particularly since a Fascist branch of his family made a fortune from the cotton trade in Asmara. He continues: “And a spoiled signora having a fling with the skipper is no different from a husband fucking the nanny. Just plain common.

‘I didn’t get you anything,’ said Nathan, with the good cheer of a sinner already absolved, ‘I forgot.’ Then Ronald Macaulay came in with holiness in the pleats of his trousers. The atmosphere thinned, as if the room had been elevated nearer heaven.