Friends, Vandelin thinks, are well and good, but they don't need to know things about you, like how your uncle died or how you still feel about it, or indeed, how you feel about anything. Friends are people you help out when you want to be magnanimous, whom you can trust with your politics, from whom you can in theory seek help but should really try your best not to. Inasmuch as Vandelin even knows what a friend is, he thinks of Anders as one of the closest. It would mystify him that Anders would think otherwise.

"Of course," he says, and his appreciation is truly sincere. As the offer of company that it is, it warms him, and he has no desire to reject it. "I'll try not to bother you too often when he does something cute. But I'll let you know once I've decided on a name."