She was a graduate of what they once called a charm course - elevated these days to a vocational discipline. It was, after all a dark Monday morning, and cruel candour suggested that the mandatory bonhomie was concealing an antipathy not hard to understand. If it hadn't been for me, she could still have been in bed. When Wendy rang last week euphoric with tidings that they'd chosen our house for a completely free survey, she addressed me with such tenderness it made me worry if she might be some long forgotten ex-fiancee. In the end it turned out all she wanted was my money.
Insincerity is surely the cruellest deception.
But then, it can't be easy either selling double-glazing, so I thanked her profusely and from the bottom of my heart hoped she was having a wonderful day. My one residual worry was, had I been an older and lonelier person, the unaccustomed geniality might well have charmed from me a chunk of my savings.