'Quantum of Solace' (1960) by Ian Fleming

After completing a mission in the Bahamas, Bond is in Nassau and attends a disappointing dinner party at Government House. When the other guests have left, Bond remarks that if he ever marries, he imagines it would be nice to marry an air hostess. The Governor then tells Bond the story of a relationship between a former civil servant, Philip Masters, and air hostess Rhoda Llewellyn.

After meeting aboard a flight to London, the couple married and went to live in Bermuda, but Rhoda eventually began a long open affair with the eldest son of a rich Bermudian family. As a result, Masters' work deteriorated, and he suffered a nervous breakdown. After recovering, he was given a break from Bermuda by the governor and sent on an assignment to Washington. Upon his return Masters was determined to end his marriage, and he divided their home into two half-sections, one for each of them, and refused to have anything to do with his wife in private – although they continued to appear as a couple in public. He eventually returned to the UK alone, leaving Rhoda with unpaid debts and stranded in Bermuda – a cruel act which he would have been incapable of carrying out just a few months earlier. The Governor explains his point to Bond: when the "Quantum of Solace" drops to zero, humanity and consideration of one human for another is gone, and the relationship is finished. Despite the success of Masters' plan to take revenge on his unfaithful wife, he never recovered emotionally. After a time, Rhoda married a rich Canadian. The Governor then reveals that the dinner companions whom Bond found dull were in fact Rhoda and her husband – the Governor hinting that Bond should have a quantum of solace for what they went through.