The dinner--at a Japanese restaurant that Jack favored--was heavenly. He was impressed at how well she manipulated her chopsticks: he could barely get the food into his mouth, and scooping up rice with chopsticks proved so impossible that he was reduced to the shame of asking the waitress for a fork. Vanessa smiled at his awkwardness, but it was a genial smile that had a lot of sympathy in it.

In the midst of the meal, after some idle banter about nothing in particular, Vanessa was bold enough to ask: "What happened to your wife? I mean, to your marriage?"

Jack sighed wearily. "I wish I could tell you. Maybe,...