‘Oh, well, you would soon have got bored with having to practise seven or eight hours a day. A great deal too much like hard work, I should say.’ He turned to Geoffrey. ‘Did you see that Russian girl when she was over? I thought she was pretty good myself.’

As they came out of the dining-room, Ninian announced to all and sundry,

‘Janet and I have got to tear ourselves away. Coffee with Adriana.’

‘Do you mean she asked you – both of you?’ Meriel’s voice was angry.

‘She did.’

‘I shouldn’t have thought she would go out of her way to ask a stranger.’

‘Wouldn’t you? But then you don’t think very much, do you?’

She said,

‘What’s the use? It doesn’t get you anywhere.’ Her eyes were suddenly imploring.

Janet looked away. She murmured an excuse to Edna and turned towards the stairs. After no more than half a dozen steps Ninian came up with her. She waited until the hall below was empty before she said,

‘All she wants is to have a scene. You shouldn’t bait her.’

‘There is nothing for her to have a scene about.’

He glanced sideways at her. Her head was high. She looked, not at him, but straight ahead. She said,

‘Do you expect me to believe that you haven’t been flirting with her?’

He gave a rueful laugh.

‘I don’t know about expecting you to believe it, but it happens to be the truth. As you say, all she wants is to have a scene, and it doesn’t very much matter what it’s about. She’s bored stiff, and she wants a spot of limelight and a nice juicy emotional part. Honestly, she scares me! I’d as soon flirt with an atom bomb!’

Janet said severely, ‘Why doesn’t she get herself a job? I’m not surprised she’s bored down here with nothing to do.’

He laughed.

‘Better keep off telling her that if you really don’t want a scene!’

‘Why?’

‘You’re being stupid. A job would mean work, and our darling Meriel has no urge to work. Money to spend and nothing to do, with rows of admirers helping her to do it – that, quite frankly, is her ambition. And she’ll never leave Adriana, because out of sight could be out of mind, and she might get left out of The Will. That is all we think about in this house, darling. No one knows how much Adriana has got, and nobody has any idea who is going to get it when she is gone, so naturally no one thinks about anything else. Geoffrey would like a flat in town and his freedom. Edna dwells fondly on the thought of a nice little all-electric house full of the gadgets from exhibitions like Beautiful Homes For The Million. Meriel wants a film world in which she glides about in marble halls and sleeps on a tiger skin.’

‘And you?’ said Janet. ‘What do you want?’

‘What I can get.’

They had reached the top of the stairs and were standing there. His voice had a very undermining sound in it. She said,

‘It used not to be money.’

He laughed.

‘We’ve changed all that. Every sensible person wants money.’

‘A sensible person knows that you have to earn it.’

‘Janet, you’re a prig!’

‘I daresay.’

‘It’s a revolting thing to be.’

She made a small pushing movement with her hands.

‘Very well then, away with you!’

He burst out laughing.

‘Come along! We’re keeping Adriana waiting.’

They found her on her couch, the velvet spread drawn up to her waist, rings on the long pale fingers, no other jewelry except the double row of pearls. The coffee had not yet arrived. She wanted to talk to them first. She would ring for it when she was ready.

‘And I’ll see you one at a time to start with.’ She spoke to Ninian. ‘You can go into my dressing-room and wait. There’s a comfortable chair, and a book of my press notices.’

He laughed.

‘Do you think I need press notices to tell me how wonderful you are?’

The door shut. Janet was waved to a chair. She thought, ‘It’s like being in some kind of a queer dream.’ And then Adriana was saying,

‘I am going to ask you a question. I want an honest answer to it. Is that agreed?’

There was no change in Janet’s face, or in her voice as she said,

‘It would depend on what you asked me.’

‘Meaning you wouldn’t undertake to be honest?’

‘I mightn’t know the answer.’

‘Oh, I think you would, or I shouldn’t be asking. Well, here it is. You and Ninian and Star grew up together. There isn’t much that children don’t know about each other, and I want to know just how far you think Ninian is to be trusted.’

Janet sat there silently. Adriana’s eyes searched her. The question echoed in her mind. In the end she said,

‘There are different kinds of trust.’

‘That is true. Did he fail you?’

Janet did not speak. After what seemed like a long time Adriana said,

‘That is not my affair? I suppose not. But this is – would he fail me?’

‘I don’t think so.’ The words sprang to her mind, to her lips. She gave them no conscious thought. They were there.

Adriana said,

‘You didn’t take long over that. In other words, he would play fast and loose with a girl, but he wouldn’t pick a pocket.’

Janet said, ‘No, he wouldn’t pick a pocket.’

Adriana’s voice went deep.

‘Sure about that? He wouldn’t play a lying part for money? He wouldn’t try and scheme, and pull strings for his own advantage.’

Janet heard her own voice very clear and steady,

‘Oh, no, he wouldn’t do that.’

‘Why?’

‘It isn’t in him.’

‘As sure about it as that?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘That is how you thought of him when you were children. How do you know he hasn’t changed?’

‘I should know it if he had.’

Adriana laughed.

‘Well, you don’t beat about the bush, anyhow! How well do you know Robin Somers?’

If Janet was startled, she did not show it. If the change of subject was a relief, she did not show that either. She said,

‘It’s two years since I’ve seen him.’

One of Adriana’s pale hands rose and fell.

‘That is no answer at all. It’s two years since Star divorced him. How well did you know him before that?’

Janet considered.

‘I used to see him – not very often. He could be charming.’

‘Did he charm you?’

‘Not very much.’

‘What did you think of him?’

‘I don’t see that matters, Miss Ford.’

‘I don’t care about being Miss Ford. Call me Adriana. And if it didn’t matter, I shouldn’t be asking you.’

Janet said, ‘I didn’t like him very much. I thought he was selfish.’

Adriana laughed.

‘Men are – and so are women.’

‘He was making Star unhappy.’

‘Was he fond of her?’

‘In his own way’

‘And of Stella?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘And what do you mean by that?’

‘Well, he didn’t bother about her, did he? She was down here, and he was up in town – how often did he come and see her?’

‘Not very often.’

Janet said with finality,

‘She talks about Ninian, but she doesn’t talk about her father.’

Adriana smiled.

‘That might mean that she cares too little – or too much. She is an odd child – it might be quite difficult to tell. Well, you don’t like him, and he made Star unhappy, and of course that damns him!’ The smile mocked her. ‘Would you take his word about anything?’

There was no hesitation at all about Janet’s ‘Oh, no.’

Adriana laughed.

‘So now we know! Well, that’s all for the moment, and it’s your turn for the dressing-room. Send Ninian in. You needn’t read the press notices if you don’t want to.’

She found Ninian absorbed in them and reluctant to put them down. He went through to the sitting-room with a laughing ‘I’m like all her other adorers, I can’t be torn away!’ As he shut the door between the two rooms, Adriana said sharply,

‘Don’t stand there muttering behind my back! What did you say?’

‘Oh, just that I couldn’t put your notices down. The critics certainly did you proud.’

‘Well, I was good – I was damned good. And the gallery could hear my lowest whisper, which is more than you can say about practically anyone on the stage today. Oh, yes, I was good all right. And now I’m a has-been, and no one cares how good I was.’