Dimitri had come into the supper-room. He gave a professional look round, spoke to one of his waiters, came across to Lady Carrados and bowed tentatively and then went out again.

‘Dimitri is a great blessing to all of us,’ said Lady Carrados. She said it so simply that he knew at once that if Dimitri was blackmailing her she had no idea of it. He was hunting in his mind for something to reply when Bridget came into the supper-room.

She was carrying her mother’s bag.

Everything seemed to happen at the same moment. Bridget calling gaily: ‘Really, Donna darling, you’re hopeless. There was your bag, simply preggy with banknotes, lying on the writing-table in the green boudoir. And I bet you didn’t know where you’d left it.’ Then Bridget, seeing her mother’s face and crying out: ‘Darling, what’s the matter?’ Lord Robert himself getting up and interposing his bulk between Lady Carrados and the other tables. Lady Carrados half-laughing, half-crying and reaching out frantically for the bag. Himself saying: ‘Run away, Bridget, I’ll look after your mother.’ And Lady Carrados, in a whisper: ‘I’m all right. Run upstairs, darling, and get my smelling-salts.’

Somehow they persuaded Bridget to go. The next thing that happened was Sir Daniel Davidson, who stood over Evelyn Carrados like an elegant dragon.

‘You’re all right,’ he said. ‘Lord Robert, see if you can open that window.’

Lord Robert succeeded in opening the window. A damp hand seemed to be laid on his face. He caught sight of street lamps blurred by impalpable mist.

Davidson held Lady Carrados’s wrist in his long fingers and looked at her with a sort of compassionate exasperation.

‘You women,’ he said. ‘You impossible women.’

‘I’m all right. I simply felt giddy.’

‘You ought to lie down. You’ll faint and make an exhibition of yourself.’

‘No I won’t. Has anybody—?’

‘Nobody’s noticed anything. Will you go up to your room for half an hour?’

‘I haven’t got a room. It’s not my house.’

‘Of course it’s not. The cloakroom, then.’

‘I—yes. Yes, I’ll do that.’

‘Sir Daniel!’ shouted Lucy Lorrimer in the corner.

‘For Heaven’s sake go back to her,’ implored Lady Carrados, ‘or she’ll be here.’

‘Sir Daniel!’

‘Damn!’ whispered Davidson. ‘Very well, I’ll go back to her. I expect your maid’s here, isn’t she? Good. Lord Robert, will you take Lady Carrados?’

‘I’d rather go alone. Please!’

‘Very well. But please go.’

He made a grimace and returned to Lucy Lorrimer. Lady Carrados stood up, holding her bag.

‘Come on,’ said Lord Robert. ‘Nobody’s paying any attention.’