A long journey for a short visit measures affection in more than hours together.

The arithmetic of visiting is not just the time spent in the room. Six hours of travel for two hours of company looks inefficient until you notice that the travel is part of what is being said, and that the person you came to see understands the exchange rate perfectly. What is being given is trouble, and trouble is the clearest signal we have.

Receive the gesture plainly when someone travels to see you, rather than apologising for the distance. And if you have been putting off a visit because the trip seems disproportionate to the time, that disproportion may be the point.