‘But Adeline was standing next to you?’

‘Yes, and I turned to her. She was staring out, her eyes unfixed. I asked her if she’d seen the woman in the garden, and she shook her head. “No,” she said, “we’re alone here.” And when I looked back the garden was empty. I had imagined it, in my drunken state. And, in fact, I did feel faint at that point. I had to hold on to Adeline’s arm for support. She turned to me and looked deep into my eyes. Oh, I saw everything I needed to see in that look, all things, all things beautiful and all things deadly and cold. We embraced gently. And she said to me in a lovely, close-up faraway voice, “Don’t worry, Camilla, it will all be over soon, all of our troubles.”’

Camilla broke away from the spell of memory. ‘I’m sorry. I get carried away, when I think of these things.’

Hobbes was close to the table now. He said, ‘I believe we’re almost finished?’

Camilla nodded. ‘I went back downstairs to my family, and I joined in with the laughter, and the joking as I could. There was an odd atmosphere in the room, as though another person was present, in some terrible spirit. I can’t explain it. And then Adeline made her entrance.’

‘That must have been quite a scene?’

‘Oh, it was. She had put on her favourite blue and yellow dress. She looked like Anna Kreeley herself, walking down the stairs and entering the living room. Around her neck she wore a yellow scarf, and on her feet a pair of sky-blue shoes. The perfect combination.’

‘How did people react?’

‘Not well. At first glance, she looked quite magnificent, but then she came up close, and you could see the terrible affliction, on her face, in her expression, her eyes. The way she held herself. She was dreadfully thin, her cheeks sunken, and her skin had taken on a deathly pallor, grey and drained, marked with tiny wrinkles. But she was only eighteen years old. Eighteen! How could it be? Oh, poor Adeline. That poor girl! Death had taken a premature hold of her, even as she lived and breathed. The dress hung off her like a shroud.’

‘How did the family take this?’

‘Rosamund had seen her before, remember, if only for a minute. But Nicholas hadn’t been home for a while now. And he was … well, he was shocked. I had written to him once or twice, telling him about her condition, at length and in great detail, and the trouble she was having. But he’d never replied. Now he was just staring at her, as though he were ashamed of her, or fearful in her company.’

‘Fearful?’

Camilla didn’t flinch from the truth. ‘She looked monstrous.’ And then she added: ‘To me, she was the sweetest, most beautiful girl in the world, but from the outside, looking in, seeing her through everyone else’s eyes …’ The thought trailed off. ‘And so the party began.’ Another pause. And then, quietly: ‘Within an hour she was dead.’