Chapters (16)
He put his arm round her and she leant against him. They had become engaged and were happy.
They looked round them at the upsidedown cupids, the caryatids, the portrait of Mr Adolphus Ruby now prominently displayed and the graceful double flight of stairs. The bronze dolphins were gone and where the safe had been was a montage of the Grafton portrait overlaid by Kean, Garrick, Siddons, Irving and the present great Shakespearians all very excitingly treated by Jeremy Jones.
‘If you belong to the theatre,’ Peregrine said, ‘you belong utterly.’
They went out to the portico.
Here they found an enormous Daimler and a chauffeur. It was like a recurrent symbol in a time play and for a moment Peregrine felt as if Mr Conducis had called again to take him to Drury Place.
‘Is that Dessy’s car?’ Emily said.
But it wasn’t Destiny Meade in the back seat. It was an enormous and definitively hideous lady flashing with diamonds, lapped in mink and topped with feathers.
She tapped on the glass and beckoned.
When Peregrine approached she let down the window and, in a deep voice, addressed him.
‘You can perhaps assist me. I have this morning arrived from America. I vish to inquire about the Shakespearian Relics. I am Mrs Constantia Guzman.’
By The Same Author
A Man Lay Dead
Enter a Murderer
The Nursing Home Murder
Death in Ecstasy
Vintage Murder
Artists in Crime
Death in a White Tie
Overture to Death
Death at the Bar
Surfeit of Lampreys
Death and the Dancing Footman
Colour Scheme
Died in the Wool
Final Curtain
Swing, Brother, Swing
Opening Night
Spinsters in Jeopardy
Scales of Justice
Off With His Head
Singing in the Shrouds
False Scent
Hand in Glove
Dead Water
Death at the Dolphin
Clutch of Constables
When in Rome
Tied up in Tinsel
Black As He’s Painted
Last Ditch
Grave Mistake
Photo-Finish
Light Thickens
Black Beech and Honeydew (autobiography)
