‘Well, I had to meet a man, and I was a bit rushed.’

‘A friend?’

‘Oh, just a man I know.’

She tried the smile again.

‘That sounds mysterious – and interesting. Do tell me all about it! Only it’s so hot in here – couldn’t we open one of those windows behind the curtains and slip out? We could go down into the garden and sit by the pool. It would be lovely, and you could tell me all about everything. Oh, Ninian, do!’

He had begun to wonder what she was up to. There was just one thing you could always be sure of with Meriel, and that was that she was playing a part. He thought she was being the sweet and sympathetic friend, in which case her get-up was a mistake. That slinky magenta dress and the matching lipstick! Sweet sympathy flows oddly from magenta lips. Definitely the wrong note to strike. He thought what an ass she was, and he was hanged if he was going to pour confidences into her ear in a dark garden. He shook his head and said,

‘Adriana expects me to be on duty – you too, I imagine. We shall both have black marks if we don’t get on with it. I must go and pay my respects to Lady Isabel.’

Meriel stood where she was. Why should Adriana have what she wanted? They were all at her beck and call. And why? Just because she had the money. It was no use having beauty and youth and genius unless you had the money to back them up! And why should Adriana have it and go on keeping it away from everyone else! She saw Ninian laughing and talking with Lady Isabel, and thought angrily that if she wasn’t a duke’s daughter nobody would look at her twice. The anger reached her eyes as she saw Ninian move on and find his way to Janet and Stella.

Stella caught at him.

‘She says it’s my bedtime, but it isn’t. Say it isn’t!’

‘Darling, I only wish it was mine.’

‘You can go to bed instead of me. Why should I go when I don’t want to? What would Janet do if I was to scream?’

‘You had better ask her.’

Stella swung round.

‘Janet – what would you do?’

‘I don’t know.’

Stella jigged up and down.

‘Think – think quick!’

‘There’s no need to think about things that won’t happen.’

‘Why won’t they happen?’

‘Because you have too much sense. Only a very stupid person would want to be remembered for ever and ever as the child who screamed at Adriana’s party and had lemonade poured over its head.’

Stella’s eyes became immense.

‘Would you pour lemonade on me?’

‘I might, but I’m sure I shan’t have to.’

Stella looked down at a brief yellow skirt.

‘It would spoil my dress,’ she said.

Mabel Preston stared at the little group. She saw them hazily. She began to make her way towards the door.

Esmé Trent stood with her back to the room talking to Geoffrey Ford. She said,

‘Where have you been hiding yourself? I thought you were never coming near me.’

‘Oh, there are always plenty of duty people to talk to at a show like this. I have to play host for Adriana.’

‘Getting into training for doing it for yourself?’

‘My dear girl!’

She laughed.

‘No one can hear me in this uproar. It’s as good as being on a desert island. By the way, who is that ghastly Mabel creature who buttonholed me? She seems to be staying here.’

‘Mabel Preston? Oh, she’s just an old stage acquaintance of Adriana’s – a bit of a down-and-out. Adriana has her here, gives her clothes – all that kind of thing.’

Esmé Trent was explicitly profane.

‘Well, I call it cruelty to guests. The most ghastly bore I’ve ever come across, and the most ghastly sight. Like one of those wasps you find crawling about the house after there’s been a frost and it ought to have died. By the way, where is Adriana?’

He said,

‘She was over by the fireplace. Didn’t you see her? Very good stage effect – one of those carved Spanish chairs set back against greenery and chrysanthemums – other lesser chairs for the favoured few.’

‘Yes, I saw her.’ She gave a hard little laugh. ‘How she adores the limelight! But she isn’t there now.’

Geoffrey frowned.

‘It’s frightfully hot in here – she may have found it too much for her. Edna wanted me to open a window behind those curtains some time ago. I expect I had better do it.’

They began to push their way into the crowd.

They had not seen Mabel Preston between them and the door. When they moved, she managed to get it open and slip out. Esmé Trent’s words rang in her head – her false, cruel words. How could she say such dreadful wicked things? They weren’t true – they couldn’t be true! They were just spite and envy! But her head was throbbing and the tears were running down over her face and spoiling her make-up. She couldn’t go back, and she couldn’t stay here for anyone to see her like this. Someone was coming from the direction of the hall-

She began to walk the other way until she came to the end of the corridor and the glass door which led into the garden. Fresh air – that was what she wanted, and to get away quietly by herself until she had got over the insulting things that horrible woman had said. But she had better have a wrap. The black and yellow dress was only crêpe-de-chine. There was a cloakroom here by the garden door, and the very first thing she saw when she looked inside was the coat Adriana was giving her – the one that girl Meriel had made all the fuss about. But Adriana wasn’t giving it to Meriel, she was giving it to her! There it hung, with its great black and white checks and the emerald stripe which had taken her fancy. She didn’t know when she had seen anything smarter. She slipped it on and went out into the dusk.

The air felt fresh after the heated house. She walked waveringly and without conscious aim. She really had overdone those drinks. Or perhaps it was just the room being so hot and that Mrs Trent insulting her. She had asked who she was, because she looked as if she might be somebody. Mabel Preston shook her head. Smart looks aren’t everything. She wasn’t a lady. No lady would have used such an insulting expression. The words ran together into a blur. When she tried saying them aloud they sounded exactly as if she was tight. Hot room and too many drinks – never do to go back until she was all right again.

She lifted the latch of a small gate and passed into the flower-garden. Wandering on in the half light, she saw that she had come to a place where there was a pool and a seat. Nice quiet place with hedges round it. She went and sat down on the seat and shut her eyes.

It was much darker when she opened them again, and at first she didn’t know where she was. She just woke up in the dusk with the black hedges round her and a glimmer of light on the pool. It was frightening to wake like that. She got to her feet and stood for a little, remembering. It had been hot – she had had a drink too many – and that Mrs Trent had insulted her but she was all right now – she wasn’t hot any more. A shiver went over her. Silly going to sleep like that.

She moved towards the pool and stood looking down into it. Her legs felt stiff. A small bright light came flickering through an arch in the hedge. The arch was behind her and to her left. The light slid over the black and white of her coat and the emerald stripe. It startled her, but she had no time to turn or cry out.