Since I got back from Melbourne I’ve had to stay in bed with a horrible cold, coughing up brownish-yellow stuff. V’s gone to the gallery with X the painter. He mentioned with elaborate casualness that they’d had ‘a few coffees’ together while I was away. I realise that by getting sick I’m encroaching on his private daytime social life, which he so often and so strenuously denies the existence of. Yesterday he kept remarking on how ‘much better’ I seemed, and when I announced early today that I was going to stay in bed again he seemed surprised and taken aback. I suppose he’d already arranged the X outing. No suggestion that I might go. Oh hell. Should I pay attention to my instincts here? Can I be bothered letting jealousy develop? If you’re a man’s second wife you know for a fact that he’s capable of anything.