Of course she uttered no repproaches and learnt to conceal her unhappiness, to conceal it even from herself, when Jack explained to her, after the first girl had been succeeded by another, that this was how it was going to be, but she was the permanent, the real. (...) On this basis, many things were possible. Sincerety was all. The bad thing about adultery was the lying, that was the poison. He would never deceive anyone, truth was the key, the girls knew where they stood, and Franca would always know where he was. He developed, for her, concerning these matters, a whole philosophy, a warm poultice for the wound. Iris Murdoch, in The message to the planet, ed. Vintage Classics.