‘That is Templeton’s cousin, isn’t it? One sees the likeness,’ said Octavius. ‘Yes, he was. He came into the hall and tried to say something pleasant, poor man.’

‘So did the others,’ Anelida said. ‘I’m afraid I wasn’t as responsive as I ought to have been. I – we just walked out.’

‘And Richard Dakers walked out after you?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He did. And I went off to my room and wouldn’t see him. Which is so awful.’

‘So what did he do?’ Alleyn asked Octavius.

‘Do? Dakers? He was in a great taking-on. I felt sorry for him. Angry, you know, with her. He said a lot of hasty, unpleasant things which I feel sure he didn’t mean.’

‘What sort of things?’

‘Oh! ‘Octavius said. ‘It was, as far as I recollect, to the effect that Mrs Templeton had ruined his life. All very extravagant and ill-considered. I was sorry to hear it.’

‘Did he say what he meant to do when he left here?’

‘Yes, indeed. He said he was going back to have it out with her. Though how he proposed to do anything of the sort in the middle of a party, one can’t imagine. I went to the door with him, trying to calm him down, and I saw him go into the house.’

‘And that was the last you saw of him?’

‘In point of fact, yes. The telephone rang at that moment. It’s in the back room as you’ll remember. I answered it and when I returned here I thought for a moment he had done so, too. I suppose because he was so much in my mind.’

Anelida made a small ejaculation, but her uncle went on: ‘A ludicrous mistake. It was dark in here by then – very – and he was standing in silhouette against the windows. I said, “My dear chap, what now?” or something of that sort, and he turned and then, of course, I saw it was Colonel Warrender, you know.’

‘What had he come for?’ Anelida asked rather desperately.

‘Well, my dear, I suppose on behalf of his cousin and to repeat his vicarious apologies and to attempt an explanation. I felt it much better to make as little of the affair as possible: after all, we don’t know Warrender and in any case it was really nothing to do with him. He meant very well, no doubt. I was, I hope, perfectly civil but I got rid of him in a matter of seconds.’

‘Yes,’ Alleyn said. ‘I see. To side-track for a moment, I suppose you’re by way of being an authority on Victorian tinsel pictures, aren’t you? Do you go in for them? I seem to remember …’

‘How very odd!’ Octavius exclaimed. ‘My dear fellow, I sold one this morning to young Dakers, as a birthday present for – oh, well, there you are! – for his guardian.’

‘Madam Vestris?’