By dint of encouraging these horticultural speculations it was possible to get home without any more embarrassing confidences on the subject of Ellie Page.

It was indeed one of those early autumn days which are sometimes hotter than anything conceded by July. Edna Ford, under the necessity of having something to worry about, now concentrated upon the unseasonable temperature.

‘Adriana never makes proper lists of who has accepted and who has refused, but I believe she has asked about two hundred people, and if even half of them come the drawing-room will be unbearably hot, because she won’t have the windows open – at least I suppose she won’t. She always says she had enough draughts when she was on the stage and she means to be comfortable now. Only once the curtains are drawn, perhaps she wouldn’t notice if a window was opened behind them. I could ask Geoffrey to see about it. But of course if she did notice, it might make her very angry. You see, as soon as the lights are on inside, the curtains will have to be drawn. There is nothing she dislikes so much as being in a lighted room with the curtains open. It’s quite a thing with her. So really I think I shall have to speak to Geoffrey and see what he can do.’

By a little after six the drawing-room was beginning to fill. The day was still warm, but it was clouding. Adriana stood to receive her guests, her head high, her pose gracious. Behind her the fine old fireplace was banked with flowers, and an antique carved chair stood ready to support her when she should feel in need of rest. She wore a grey dress of great elegance, with a diamond flower on her shoulder and three rows of exquisite pearls. As the light faded and the great chandeliers were turned on, her hair caught the glow and reflected it. The colour was certainly a work of art, as was the flawless tinting of her skin.

Poor Mabel Preston came off a very bad second. Since her last visit she had reduced her straw-coloured locks to a messy imitation of Adriana’s deep copper-beech red, and she had been unwisely lavish with powder, rouge and lipstick. The black and yellow dress was a disaster. Ninian, penetrating the crowd and arriving by dint of perseverance at Janet’s side, gave one glance at her and murmured,

‘Queen wasp! They should all be destroyed quite early in the year.’

‘Ninian, she is pathetic.’

He laughed.

‘She is enjoying herself like mad. You look very handsome, my sweet.’

‘Star didn’t think so. She said I was like a brown mouse in this dress.’

‘I like brown mice. Nice companionable little things.’

Janet ignored this.

‘It’s useful, because no one remembers it,’ she said.

He was looking across the crowd.

‘Hullo, Esmé Trent is very smart! I wonder whether Adriana asked her, or whether she gate-crashed.’

‘Why should she?’

‘Up-and-coming sort of girl – she might think it a joke.’

‘I mean, why shouldn’t Adriana ask her?’

He cocked an eyebrow.

‘Dear Geoffrey might be led astray. Or dear Edna might have issued an ultimatum. Some day, you know, she’ll go right off the deep end, and Adriana will be bored stiff. Geoffrey amuses her, but she expects him to keep within bounds. What are the odds he slips into the garden with Esmé as soon as it’s dark enough to be safe?’

It was later on, when Simmons had drawn the long grey velvet curtains and the dusk was deepening outside, that Janet was making her way back to the table at the end of the room with a tray in her hand. The cheese straws and small savouries she had been offering had run low, and she was coming back to renew the supply. The easiest way to get along was by the wall on the window side. The three recesses afforded elbow-room, and at any rate you could only be bumped from one direction.

But just by the last of the windows she became hemmed in and could get no farther. A solid block of people was pressed against the table beyond her, all talking at the top of their voices and forming an impenetrable barrier. She was forced up against the curtain, the thick velvet touching her cheek, and beyond it from the window recess voices came to her.

By some trick of acoustics these voices did not merge with the babel in the room. They were detached and clear. Ellie Page said, ‘Oh, Geoffrey darling!’ and Geoffrey Ford said, ‘My dear girl, do take care!’

Janet went hot and cold. She couldn’t move away. She couldn’t even put her fingers in her ears because of the tray she was holding. If she coughed or shook the curtain, they would know that they had been overheard.

Ellie said, ‘Couldn’t we slip out? I heard her asking you to open a window. No one would miss us.’

‘I can’t possibly. It would be madness.’

‘I must see you!’

‘You saw me last night.’

So it had been Ellie Page down there in Edna’s sitting-room at two in the morning – Ellie Page.

Ellie said on a sob,

‘You sent me away-’

‘Well, if you want to ruin us both-’

‘Oh, I don’t!’

‘Then you’ve got to be patient.’

There was another sob.

‘How long is it going on?’

He said in an exasperated tone,

‘What is the good of asking me that? If I leave Edna, Adriana will cut off supplies – she has told me so right out. Well, we can’t live on nothing, can we?’

Someone moved on Janet’s left and she stepped into the gap. That poor wretched girl – what a mess! She pushed and prodded her way up to the table and set down the tray.

Chapter Eighteen

Mabel Preston was enjoying herself. All those nice little savouries and any amount to drink. Every time she took another glass she felt more convinced that she was right on the top of her form. After the third or fourth she had no hesitation in talking to anyone. And why not, if you please? Most of the women’s clothes were not half so smart as hers. Adriana always did go to good houses, and there was one thing about black and yellow, it showed up well in a crowd. Right from the beginning she had noticed people looking at her, which made it quite easy to get into conversation and let them know who they had been looking at.

‘Mabel Prestayne. That was my stage name – I expect you’ll remember it. It’s some years since I retired – on my marriage of course. But the public doesn’t forget. Now I always think Adriana stayed on too long. I believe in being remembered at one’s best.’

She did not really notice that the people to whom she addressed these remarks had nothing very much to say to her and soon detached themselves. She continued to sip from one little glass after another and to confide more and more frankly in the total stranger. It was disappointing that the Duchess shouldn’t be here, but she heard Lady Isabel Warren announced, and she was the Duke’s sister, which would do very nearly as well to talk about afterwards. She ought perhaps to make the next drink her last. The bother was she was out of practice, and the room was so hot. She thought perhaps she would go out into the hall and cool down. It wouldn’t do if she came over queer in a crowd like this.

Meriel edged her way between two chattering groups and skirted old Lady Bontine, who took up as much room as two other people and was a great deal harder to shift. It brought her to the point she was aiming at. Ninian was simply bound to come back this way. He set down the tray he was carrying, turned, found her at his elbow, and said, ‘Hullo!’ She gave him the smile which she had spent some time practising before her looking-glass.

‘Oh, you’re back! Did you have a good time?’

‘Quite a successful one, thank you.’

‘I wish I had known you were going up. I would have come too. I have quite a lot to do in town, but I do so hate travelling alone. It would have been delightful if we could have gone together.’