Paulo"s letter, carried by the nineteen-year-old pregnant Tanya, caused Maudlin to take stock of himself. He was sixty-four years of age when she arrived at his door and still playing the field, happily oblivious to its consequences. Parenthood had been confined to the marital home, apart from his indiscretion with Andrea in Northern Spain. He had, always, taken precautions of one kind or another; including the recommendations of abortions on three occasions, none of which had moved him spiritually, nor led to a change of nature. He was not a religious person but sometimes, when he had nothing more pressing to consider, he sought the same insurance of eternal life that affects others concerned more in the material world.
Andrea was a churchgoing Catholic, and had Romario christened into t
