say you will! In half an hour or so. Will you?’
She smiled and nodded. He sat down between Lady Carrados and Lady Alleyn and gave them each a little pat. His hand alighted on Lady Carrados’s bag. She moved it quickly. He was beaming out into the ballroom and seemed lost in a mild ecstasy.
‘Champagne!’ he said. ‘Can’t beat it! I’m not inebriated, my dears, but I am, I proudly confess, a little exalted. What I believe is nowadays called nicely thank you. How-de-do? Gorgeous, ain’t it?’
General and Mrs Halcut-Hackett bowed. Their smiling lips moved in a soundless assent. They sat down between Lady Alleyn and Sir Daniel Davidson and his partner, Lady Lorrimer.
Lucy, Dowager Marchioness of Lorrimer, was a woman of eighty. She dressed almost entirely in veils and untidy jewellery. She was enormously rich and not a little eccentric. Sir Daniel attended to her lumbago. She was now talking to him earnestly and confusedly and he listened with an air of enraptured attention. Lord Robert turned with a small bounce and made two bobs in their direction.
‘There’s Davidson,’ he said delightedly, ‘and Lucy Lorrimer. How are you, Lucy?’
‘What?’ shouted Lucy Lorrimer.
‘How are yer?’
‘Busy. I thought you were in Australia.’
‘Why?’
‘What?’
‘Why?’
‘Don’t interrupt,’ shouted Lucy Lorrimer. ‘I’m talking.’
‘Never been there,’ said Lord Robert; ‘the woman’s mad.’
The Halcut-Hacketts smiled uncomfortably. Lucy Lorrimer leant across Davidson and bawled: ‘Don’t forget tomorrow night!’
‘Who? Me?’ asked Lord Robert. ‘Of course not.’
‘Eight-thirty sharp.’
‘I know. Though how you could think I was in Australia—’
‘I didn’t see it was you,’ screamed Lucy Lorrimer. ‘Don’t forget now.’ The band stopped as abruptly as it had begun and her voice rang out piercingly. ‘It wouldn’t be the first night you had disappointed me.’
She leant back chuckling and fanning herself. Lord Robert took the rest of the party in with a comical glance.
‘Honestly, Lucy!’ said Lady Alleyn.
‘He’s the most absent-minded creature in the world,’ added Lucy Lorrimer.
‘Now to that,’ said Lord Robert, ‘I do take exception. I am above all things a creature of habit, upon my honour. I could tell you, if it wasn’t a very boring sort of story, exactly to the minute what I shall do with myself tomorrow evening and how I shall ensure my punctual arrival at Lucy Lorrimer’s party.’
‘Suddenly remember it at a quarter to nine and take a cab,’ said Lucy Lorrimer.
‘Not a bit of it.’
Mrs Halcut-Hackett suddenly joined in the conversation.
‘I can vouch for Lord Robert’s punctuality,’ she said loudly. ‘He always keeps his appointments.’ She laughed a little too shrilly and for some unaccountable reason created an uncomfortable atmosphere. Lady Alleyn glanced sharply at her. Lucy Lorrimer stopped short in the middle of a hopelessly involved sentence; Davidson put up his glass and stared. General Halcut-Hackett said, ‘What!’ loudly and uneasily. Lord Robert examined his fat little hands with an air of complacent astonishment. The inexplicable tension was relieved by the arrival of Sir Herbert Carrados with the plain protégée of the Halcut-Hacketts. She held her long chiffon handkerchief to her face and she looked a little desperately at her chaperone. Carrados who had her by the elbow was the very picture of British chivalry.
‘A casualty!’ he said archly. ‘Mrs Halcut-Hackett, I’m afraid you are going to be very angry with me!’
‘Why, Sir Herbert!’ said Mrs Halcut-Hackett; ‘that’s surely an impossibility.’
The General said ‘What!’
‘This young lady,’ continued Carrados, squeezing her elbow, ‘no sooner began to dance with me than she developed toothache. Frightfully bad luck—for both of us.’
Mrs Halcut-Hackett eyed her charge with something very like angry despair.
What’s the matter,’ she said, ‘darling?’
‘I’m afraid I’d better go home.’
Lady Carrados took her hand.
‘That is bad luck,’ she said. ‘Shall we see if we can find something to—’
‘No, no, please,’ said the child. ‘I think really, I’d better go home. I—I’m sure I’d better. Really.’
The General suddenly became human. He stood up, took the girl by the shoulders, and addressed Lady Carrados.
‘Better at home,’ he said. ‘What? Brandy and oil of cloves. Damn bad show. Will you excuse us?’ He addressed his wife. ‘I’ll take her home. You stay on. Come back for you.’ He addressed his charge: ‘Come on, child. Get your wrap.’
‘You need not come back for me, dear,’ said Mrs Halcut-Hackett. ‘I shall be quite all right. Stay with Rose.’
‘If I may,’ squeaked Lord Robert, ‘I’ll give myself the pleasure of driving your wife home, Halcut-Hackett.’
‘No, no,’ began Mrs Halcut-Hackett, ‘I—please—’
‘Well,’ said the General. ‘Suit splendidly. What? Say good night. What?’ They bowed and shook hands. Sir Herbert walked away with both of them. Mrs Halcut-Hackett embarked on a long polite explanation and apology to Lady Carrados.
‘Poor child!’ whispered Lady Alleyn.
‘Poor child, indeed,’ murmured Troy.
Mrs Halcut-Hackett had made no further reply to Lord Robert’s offer. Now, as he turned to her, she hurriedly addressed herself to Davidson.
‘I must take the poor lamb to a dentist,’ she said. ‘Too awful if her face should swell half-way through the season. Her mother is my dearest friend but she’d never forgive me. A major tragedy.’
‘Quite,’ said Sir Daniel rather dryly.
‘Well,’ said Lucy Lorrimer beginning to collect her scarves, ‘I shall expect you at eight twenty-seven. It’s only me and my brother, you know. The one that got into difficulties. I want some supper. Where is Mrs Halcut-Hackett? I suppose I must congratulate her on her ball, though I must say I always think it’s the greatest mistake—’
Sir Daniel Davidson hurriedly shouted her down.
‘Let me take you down and give you some supper,’ he
