David and Daphne Trimble face a painful dilemma this morning. The UUP leader faces another gruelling round of interviews and party meetings, leaving Daphne to the home duties. But this evening, over supper and a nice bottle of something red, they will face the moment of decision: to go, or not to go.
Many weeks back Mr Trimble delighted his wife with news that he had obtained tickets for a very special operatic event in London - a Royal Opera House staging of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg by Richard Wagner, five hours and 40 minutes exhilaration and escape. Enthusiasm was only momentarily dented when Daphne spotted the date - Monday, May 22nd.
Mr Trimble clearly anticipated the devolution crisis would be resolved well before then. He certainly knew that, with his own happy event expected around the same time, Tony Blair was determined it should be.
Irritated as Mr Blair already is with Mr Trimble's performance over the past fortnight, the Prime Minister might not take kindly to the discovery that the embattled Mr Trimble had taken time out to go to the opera.
Irritated Mr Blair clearly is. Mr Peter Mandelson's public position is that Mr Trimble made the right decision in postponing the meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council. The Secretary of State declared: "I would rather wait a week for a good result than rush forward now."
However, Mr Trimble might have scanned yesterday's British press for a fuller indication of London's mood. The Prime Minister's official spokesman's view that there would be no more concessions was supported by a "ministerial source" who told the London Independent: "Trimble's obviously going for it. Peter has gone as far as he could. He feels there is no more he can give to the unionists."
Variously we learned that ministers were angry or regretful that Mr Trimble might have "taken his eye off the ball" and failed to deploy "the big picture" case for the Hillsborough deal. Some of that anger and regret was reflected, too, in a Times editorial which feared the Ulster Unionists had "not so much lost the wood for the trees as the wood for the twigs."
Mr Trimble may take all that in his stride. However, he will be hoping there will be no further comment from "one exasperated cabinet source" who apparently vented his anger on the Ulster Unionist Council, with the contemptuous dismissal: "They are old men, completely out of touch, holding up the whole process."
Even New Labour's most brilliant operators have to recognise that it is these same out-of-touch old men (and women, presumably) who hold the fate of the Belfast Agreement in their hands.
Two weeks ago it seemed Mr Blair and Mr Adams had finally cracked the decommissioning problem. Mr Trimble and his deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, appeared confident they could sell the deal - so much so that Mr Taylor at one point put the chances of carrying the UUC as high as 90 per cent.
Downing Street had reacted angrily on the Saturday morning after Hillsborough when UTV reported a deal with the UUP which would see the name of the RUC "incorporated" in the title of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. The assumption at the time was that Mr Alistair Campbell was merely annoyed that a premature leak had disrupted a master plan to hold back the announcement to a moment of maximum advantage for Mr Trimble.
Everybody knew that Mr Trimble had been shackled with the demand for the retention of the RUC title as the price of reentry into government with Sinn Fein.
Despite the firmness of Downing Street's denial, the next day's Sunday Telegraph claimed the deal on the RUC, and on flying the Union flag on government buildings, had been brokered during a crucial 90-minute meeting between Mr Blair and Mr Taylor.
By Monday, senior Ulster Unionists appeared sanguine about what one cast as Mr Taylor's determination "to present himself as the man who saved the RUC".
But by Wednesday The Irish Times was headlining Mr Taylor's warning that the entire deal could "unscramble" on the policing issue.
What the UUP Assembly Party had been told was "a done deal" with the British government had been undone. The words penned by Mr Mandelson would not now appear on the face of the new Police Bill.
There were savage comments about Mr Cowen "throwing his weight about" and the Taoiseach bowing to Sinn Fein pressure. But in between the bitter denunciations of Dublin, one senior UUP player blamed Mr Taylor because, seemingly, his "talking up" the RUC issue had alerted Sinn Fein, who allegedly told Mr Blair that any concession on Patten could see the IRA withdraw its confidence-building proposal on arms dumps.
The complaint against Mr Taylor doesn't hold up to serious scrutiny. A leak might have proved irritating, but it could hardly have negatived a done deal. Moreover, it is surely fantasy politics to suggest that Mr Adams had concluded his deal with Mr Blair - and delivered the IRA - knowing that there was a separate, ongoing negotiation in play with Mr Trimble over Patten.
The uncomfortable truth for the UUP, as authoritatively confirmed to The Irish Times, was that they had found it impossible to pin down "the deal" on the night of May 5th. The harsh reality appears to be that Mr Blair drew the negotiation to a close because he feared the deal that mattered most - on arms - would otherwise start to unravel.
However, the uncomfortable truth for Mr Blair is that, as Mr Trimble begins his hard sell, the indications are that the UUP is set to renew its efforts to secure amendment to Mr Mandelson's Police Bill. If there are "no more concessions", then Mr Trimble's perceived failure on the RUC issue can only handicap his chances of victory next Saturday.
And no sensible commentator would put those chances at much more than 50/50. For Mr Trimble is facing an increasingly reluctant party - his decision to postpone a simple recognition that he faced near-certain defeat.
Mr Trimble has shown himself surprisingly good in such circumstances before. But to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat he must now sell convincingly an IRA offer about which he has uttered barely a good word to date. He is unlikely to do so by continuing to complain about "the niggardly" attitude of republicans, or by insisting the IRA offer raises as many questions as answers.
Nor would it seem wise to embellish the IRA statement, attribute things that are not stated, or evade the legitimate questions unionists have about the still-conditional nature of the IRA offer.
Unionists are entitled to an honest assessment from their leaders if (as seems clear) they do accept the bona fides of the present republican leadership; if they believe the opening of dumps to inspection is tantamount, in republican terms, to decommissioning without surrender.
This is the issue on which Mr Trimble must invite his party to make its judgment next Saturday. And the UUC delegates will have to make their minds up in the knowledge that the British government has already made its decision.