To his astonishment they didn’t answer immediately. Presently Charles said with a suggestion of pain in his voice: ‘The same thing has occurred to me. I – I asked Frank Harkness about it. He’s looked after us both for years, as you know. He thinks she’s been a bit nervy for some time, I gather, like many women of her – well, of her age. He thinks the high-pressure atmosphere of the theatre may have increased the tension. I got the impression he was under-stating his case. I don’t mind telling you,’ Charles added unhappily, ‘it’s been worrying me for some time. These – these ugly scenes.’

Warrender muttered: ‘Vindictive,’ and looked as if he regretted it.

Richard cried out: ‘Her kindness! I’ve always thought she had the kindest eyes I’d ever seen in a woman.’

Warrender, who seemed this morning to be bent on speaking out of character, did so now. ‘People,’ he said, ‘talk about eyes and mouths as if they had something to do with the way other people think and behave. Only bits of the body, aren’t they? Like navels and knees and toenails. Arrangements.’

Charles glanced at him with amusement. ‘My dear Maurice, you terrify me. So you discount our old friends the generous mouth, the frank glance, the open forehead. I wonder if you’re right.’

‘Right or wrong,’ Richard burst out, ‘it doesn’t get me any nearer a decision.’

Charles put down his sherry and put up his eyeglass. ‘If I were you, Dicky,’ he said, ‘I should go ahead.’

‘Hear, hear!’

‘Thank you, Maurice. Yes. I should go ahead. Offer your play in what you believe to be the best market. If Mary’s upset it won’t be for long, you know. You must keep a sense of perspective, my dear boy.’

Colonel Warrender listened to this with his mouth slightly open and a glaze over his eyes. When Charles had finished Warrender looked at his watch, rose and said he had a telephone call to make before luncheon. ‘I’ll do it from the drawing-room, if I may,’ he said. He glared at Richard. ‘Stick to your guns, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘Best policy.’ And went out.

Richard said: ‘I’ve always wondered: just how simple is Maurice?’

‘It would be the greatest mistake,’ Charles said, ‘to underrate him.’

IV