Miss Bellamy got the general trend of this remark and her spirits rose. She thanked him warmly for his telegram and he at once looked extremely pleased with himself. ‘Your husband and your ward,’ he said, ‘told us of the event and I thought, you know, of the many delicious hours you have given us and of how meagre a return is the mere striking together of one’s hands.’ He looked sideways at her. ‘An old fogey’s impulse,’ he said and waved it aside. He made her a little bow and put his head on one side. Anelida wished he wouldn’t.

‘It was heaven of you,’ said Miss Bellamy. ‘So much pleasure it gave: you can’t think! And what’s more I haven’t thanked you for finding that perfect picture for Dicky to give me nor,’ she improvised on the spur of the moment, ‘for that heavenly copy of …’ Maddeningly, she had forgotten the author of Charles’s purchase and of the quotation in the telegram. She marked time with a gesture indicating ineffable pleasure and then mercifully remembered. ‘Of Spenser,’ she cried.

‘You admired the Spenser? I’m very glad.’

‘So much. And now,’ she continued with an enchanting air of diffidence, ‘I’m going to ask you something that you’ll think quite preposterous. I’ve come with an invitation. You are, I know, great friends of my ward’s – of Dicky’s – and I, like you, am a creature of impulse. I want you both – please – to come to my little party this evening. Drinks and a handful of ridiculous chums at half-past six. Now, please be very sweet and spoil me on my birthday. Please, say yes.’

Octavius turned quite pink with gratification. He didn’t hear his niece who came near to him and said hurriedly: ‘Unk, I don’t think we …’

‘I have never,’ Octavius said, ‘in my life attended a theatrical party. It is something quite outside my experience. Really, it’s extraordinarily kind of you to think of inviting us. My niece, no doubt, is an initiate. Though not at such an exalted level, I think, Nelly, my love?’

Anelida had began to say: ‘ It’s terribly kind …’ but Miss Bellamy was already in full spate. She had taken Octavius impulsively by the hands and was beaming into his face. ‘You will? Now, isn’t that big of you? I was so afraid I might be put in my place or that you would be booked up. And I’m not! And you aren’t! Isn’t that wonderful!’

‘We are certainly free,’ Octavius said. ‘Anelida’s theatre is not open on Monday evenings. She had offered to help me with our new catalogue. I shall be enchanted.’

‘Wonderful!’ Miss Bellamy gaily repeated. ‘And now I must run. Au revoir, both of you. Till this evening!’