Lionel and Jean have finally got around to shopping for that suit that Lionel needs for the book tour. Jean is seated and waits patiently outside the dressing room. The salesman is attending to his business. Moaning sounds may be heard coming behind the curtain of the room where Lionel is trying on suits. Jean asks if someone is fighting in there. The salesman goes to check. He wants to know if "Sir" is all right. "Sir" is not all right. He is tired of taking his shoes on and off, tired of the whole process and hot and claustrophobic to boot. Poor salesman -- he only asked a simple question but Lionel seems to take out his frustrations at him. Quite an outburst, the gentleman observes. Jean matter-of-factly says that Lionel is railing. He sure wouldn't want to have Lionel's blood pressure. Jean is unconcerned. She says once he's finished railing, he's over it and back to his old self. Lionel comes out of the cubicle saying that he doesn't like being discussed when he's behind a curtain. Jean reminds him this is not something that happens on a regular basis. The salesman offers Lionel a glass of water. Lionel would prefer a pint of his Best Bitters. He can't do that, but perhaps he can find Lionel a sherry. Lionel tells him he was only joking. The salesman tells Lionel he looks very "smart" in the dark grey double-breasted suit he's wearing. Jean says "yes." He doesn't know what she means. "Yes, but...?" he prompts. Lionel is very unsure of himself and he tells Jean he's glad she gave up a Saturday morning to go shopping with him, but he assumed she'd bring an opinion with her.

JEAN: It's hard to put it into words.
LIONEL: There's isn't time to write me a letter

Jean wonders what Alistair would say about the suit. Lionel has brought along some of the notes that Alistair gave him. He hoped only to use them as a last resort, but thumbs through the notes. He finds a chapter on sex -- nope, there's one on clothes. He's unable to understand what Alistair means and neither can the salesman nor or Jean figure it out -- it's gibberish: Alistair thinks he should have a suit that is smart but not too smart, stylish, but not too stylish, informal, but not too informal. Lionel says he's ready to have that sherry now.

Lionel leaves without buying a suit. As they leave the shop and walk down the street he complains about how much he hates being patronized. Jean tells him that the man went to a lot of trouble and, in the end, didn't even sell a suit. Lionel points out that he DID buy a tie. Judging from the fact that Lionel almost always wears the same ties in each episode it's about time he got a new one. He says that he's not going to buy a suit after all and that the public will just have to take him as he is. She thinks this comes across somewhat as a threat. "You will be cheerful won't you?" she asks. He assures her he is going to walk around with a big grin across his face -- which he proceeds to do as they walk down the street. The people stop and stare and Jean tells him to stop it, but she can't keep herself from giggling either.

They're in Jean's kitchen. He's not sure he likes his new tie, but he's not going back to the shop -- the chap deserves a peaceful afternoon after the morning he's had. Jean thinks he deserves a medal. She's curious about why Lionel has never made any comments about the coffee she makes, since he's a former coffee grower. He concludes that it's "jolly nice", something which she says a Vicar might say. Lionel wants to know if the Vicar pops in often. She's speaking figuratively she says. All she wants is an "informed" opinion. He takes a mouthful of coffee and points his head upwards. He swishes the coffee and then makes a movement as though he were going to spit it out on the floor and just before he could have done so Jean says "excuse ME." He grins. She laughs. After all that, his verdict: "Jolly nice."

Jean wants to know about the sex chapter in Alistair's folder. He hands her the little book and tells her to have a look for herself. "I knew you'd laugh," he says. "Well, it isn't you, is it?" Then she does a double-take and says again "is it?" She says Alistair must want Lionel to come off as a bit of an old ram. Alistair is not very subtle. He wants Lionel to hint that his personal life is a bit steamy without actually saying it. If he's pressed on a particular subject he should smile mischievously and say "hey hey." His readers will think "ho ho." Jean tries to show Lionel how to laugh like that -- it turns out to be a sort of snicker that makes her laugh more. He can't resist laughing with her. Judith comes in, admires the new tie, which is lying on the table, and pours herself a cup of coffee.

Lionel wonders if his book will sell. It might do marginally better that a book about the life of a worm, he thinks. You both read it, he reminds them and wants their honest opinion. They hesitate. It's "informative, interesting, authentic....." "Dull" he suggests. "A bit," they admit. That's the thing Lionel wants to know -- if everyone knows it's a dull subject and it spawns a book that probably no-one will buy, why did Alistair decide to publish it at all?

Jean is at the agency. Sandy tells her that Alistair is still not in his office. Neither of them has his home telephone number. Judith might know it but she's not in the office and she stayed with a friend last night so she's not available. Why is she so anxious to reach Alistair, Sandy wants to know. Well, she tells her, it has to do with Lionel and since Sandy's read the book Jean want to know her opinion of it. Sandy asks if her job depends on her answer. Not much more to be said. If it's between Lionel's book and counting sheep..... Jean tells her that that seems to be the concensus, that Lionel's no fool and that even HE admits that the book is dull. Now Lionel is determined to find out why Alistair is publishing it. Sandy thinks that's pretty obvious: a bit of non-fiction is good for a publisher's respectability. Jean knows that deep down Lionel really cares about his book. From the way she says that, Sandy observes that if she knew her better she'd think that Jean is falling in love with Lionel. Jean acts as though she were offended, tells Sandy she doesn't know her better and to go back to her desk. She says she knows one thing and that is that Jean is a whole lot livelier since Lionel has come back into her life. Sandy checks with Alistair's office again. He's there. Jean gets on the phone and after the conversation tells Sandy that she really didn't have to speak with Alistair about Lionel. Judith has already done that. Alistair was the friend with whom Judith spent the night. "Ho ho" says Sandy. Jean doesn't seem to be thrilled about Judith's involvement with Alistair. "He's only a bloke," says Sandy. Jean counters that "That's like saying a wolf is only a sort of poodle." She looks quizzically as Sandy and tries to remember what she used to do. Sarcastically she remembers that she used to run a secretarial agency. Sandy gets the hint.

Alistair welcomes Lionel into his new office. It's large, with a great view, but it doesn't look like a publisher's office -- it's not what Lionel expected -- not bookish. Alistair explains that he commits very little to paper. Strange, Lionel figures, for a publisher to say, but Alistair is a "laptop" man. "Bookish" was yesterday. A secretary comes in, presumably to get Lionel something to drink, but he wants nothing. He just wants to get down to his reason for coming: he wants to know the real reason why Alistair is publishing the book. "It's what I do," says Alistair. Lionel's no fool. He knows that Alistair didn't get rich publishing books like his. Alistair is being "megafrank" with him: it makes him feel good to publish the book. It's books like his that are real books, Alistair says -- books like his old man used to publish. Alistair hopes he's laid Lionel's fears to rest. Lionel thanks him for his honesty.

Alistair changes the subject. He wants to know about the suit. Lionel tells him he hasn't bought it yet and that even the salesman couldn't figure out what Alistair wanted him to get. Alistair doesn't want Lionel to fight him on this point. He wants him to get a suit and says he'll set Lionel up with his guy. Lionel points out that they are probably talking about something out of his price range. No problem, this guy owes him a favor -- Alistair set him up in business. Alistair sits back at his desk. "How's the sex?" he blurts out. Lionel is confused. The "hey hey," the "boy-did-I-steam-but-I'm-not telling-you bit?" Lionel says he's working on it. Alistair is a busy man so he ends this meeting rather abruptly.

Lionel and Jean are walking through the park. He hopes he didn't drag her from her office to have lunch. She doesn't mind, says it's rather nice. They head towards a park bench but a young couple beats them to it. Jean reminds him that when they were younger they used to have a trick for clearing the park benches. He wants to do it again -- sort of striking a blow for the aged. They walk up to the bench and stand staring at the couple. The couple moves to the end of the bench in order to give Lionel and Jean room to sit down. Side by side they play a child's game which involves patting their knees, clapping and waving their arms about. Neither member of the couple looks at them, but they know they're there all right. They complete the sequence. Nothing. Lionel and Jean do it over again. The other couple leaves, probably thinking they're both crazy. They laugh.

Lionel tells her that he went to see Alistair to ask him why he was publishing the book. Jean is taken by surprise and looks at Lionel as though she were hoping Alistair hasn't hurt him. She asks if he got the right answer. He tells her that Alistair had been "got at" and that the answer he was given was well rehearsed. He thinks Jean approached him. She admits that she tried, but that Judith got there first. He says he has his pride. If he is going to be that way he could just go off and sit on another bench and eat by himself. He doesn't move. She leaves and sits down on a nearby bench next to a man who looks as though he lives there. The man has a couple of filled garbage bags next to him. He's a somewhat rumpled man, with a gray, matted beard, who is wearing a straw hat The man just sits there grinning. Lionel, who is not far way, tells her she has his sandwich. He asks her to come back to their bench. She won't. The man grins at her again. She looks away. Lionel walks over to the bench where Jean was sitting and looks as though he were going to sit down, but the man moves towards Jean. Lionel sits at the other end, the man between them. He tries to explain that he's touched that she tried to help. They talk and the man keeps grinning and looking as though he were watching a tennis game. They go back to their own bench to eat their sandwiches. Soon they are joined by the man who says he finds them very interesting.

Judith asks Jean if she's had a nice lunch. Jean is more interested in talking about last night. "Men like Alistair...." she starts, but can't finish the sentence because she realizes she doesn't know any men like Alistair. Jean tells Judith that Lionel went to see Alistair that morning. Judith says she hopes he was let down easily. Sandy comes in and she, too, is wondering about Alistair. She is mystified about why Alistair is taking such a personal interest in this book that is not expected to sell. Alistair is pushing him and pushing him and he's a wealthy, busy man. A man like this would normally delegate the handling of Lionel to someone a little lower in the hierarchy -- someone like her. Jean and Judith look as though they never thought of that before. Jean hopes Lionel doesn't have that thought.

Apparently Lionel has had that thought because he's back in Alistair's office. Lionel thanks him for making the time and when Alistair tells him he's always got time for him, Lionel says that's just it. Alistair shouldn't have the time for him. He's not a complete fool. Alistair checks his watch and says "to be super-honest..." Lionel interrupts him and tells him he'll be "super-fast." There's nothing that Alistair can do to avoid this discussion. He looks as though he doesn't want it to continue, but he just tells Lionel to go ahead. Lionel tells him that he knows why Alistair said he published the book and he can barely make himself believe that, but what he really wants to know now is why Alistair is personally putting so much time into it. "I like you," is his answer. Not good enough. In order to justify the amount of time Alistair is spending he'd have to be madly in love with him, and "you're not, are you?" He wants the truth and he'll sit there until he gets it.

Later that day Alistair is sitting next to Judith in her living room. He kisses her behind her ear. She doesn't respond. She's lost in thought. He wonders if she's thinking about the night before. She says "of course" and smiles. He asks if she'd like to take a drive up the river and have dinner. She says yes, but she's still lost in thought. She turns and looks at Alistair and wonders if she can ask him something. "It's a bit personal," she says. He removes his glasses -- "Excellent!" He kneels down next to her. She tells him it's about Lionel. He's frustrated and disappointed and he's really heard all he wants to hear about Lionel for a time -- he's up to here with Lionel.

Jean's working late at the office. She hears someone come in, she hears knocking and it's so late that it scares her. She puts on a tape recording of a dog and she herself begins to bark. She says "shhhh, get down". Finally she asks who it is. It's Lionel. She shuts off the tape and lets him in. He asks if he should have brought a bone with him. She wants to know how he could tell that it wasn't a dog from outside. He told her it had something to do with the click at the beginning and the click at the end. He wants to know why she's still at the office. She's catching up on all the work she missed while she spent the whole day being preoccupied with Lionel. He said there was no need, that he found Alistair's description of his book as being dull but respectable to be quite satisfactory, but now he knows the "whole why" instead of the "half why." Apparently Alistair's father owed his father a favor and "I'm it." That's why Alistair has been looking after him like a baby. Jean thought that really must mean that Lionel's father does love him. Yes, says Lionel, "I could strangle him." He calls him a patronizing old bugger and says he doesn't need his help. He's no child. Jean thinks it's wonderful that he would do this for Lionel and not even want him to know. She says he's just saying all of these things because his pride is hurt. He admits to its being dented.

It occurs to Jean that Lionel may have counted on living on the profits from the book. He doesn't deny this. Lionel tells her that he wanted to move back from Kenya, and he got the chance to have the third class lecture tour, and in his innocence he wrote the book and thought that things would be all right and that he could just get by. Jean reminds him he owned a coffee plantation in Kenya, but Lionel tells her that the money from that plantation cannot taken out of the country. He says he wants to go out to eat. She doesn't want to go anywhere expensive. They get their coats on and get ready to leave. And he tells her it's no longer good enough to just get by. He has reason to be back in London and he has no intention of going back to Kenya. She asks him why and he accuses her of being coy -- he doesn't want to have to wait another 38 years for them to get together.