‘Mr and Mrs Wyse,’ said Miss Mapp. ‘Lately married. She was Mrs Poppit, MBE. Very worthy, and such a crashing snob.’

As soon as tea was over and the inhabitants of Tilling thus plucked and roasted, the tour of the house was made. There were charming little panelled parlours with big windows letting in a flood of air and sunshine and vases of fresh flowers on the tables. There was a broad staircase with shallow treads, and every moment Lucia became more and more enamoured of the plain well-shaped rooms. It all looked so white and comfortable, and, for one wanting a change, so different from the Hurst with its small latticed windows, its steep irregular stairs, its single steps, up or down, at the threshold of every room. People of the age of Anne seemed to have a much better idea of domestic convenience, and Lucia’s Italian exclamations grew gratifyingly frequent. Into Miss Mapp’s own bedroom she went alone with the owner, leaving Georgie on the landing outside, for delicacy would not permit his looking on the scene where Miss Mapp nightly disrobed herself, and the bed where she nightly disposed herself. Besides, it would be easier for Lucia to ask that important point-blank question of terms, and for herself to answer it if they were alone.

‘I’m charmed with the house,’ said Lucia. ‘And what exactly, how much I mean, for a period of two months –’

‘Fifteen guineas a week,’ said Miss Mapp without pause. ‘That would include the use of my piano. A sweet instrument by Blumenfelt.’

‘I will take it for August and September,’ said Lucia.

‘And I’m sure I hope you’ll be as pleased with it,’ said Miss Mapp, ‘as I’m sure I shall be with my tenant.’

A bright idea struck her, and she smiled more widely than ever.

‘That would not include, of course, the wages of my gardener, such a nice steady man,’ she said, ‘or garden-produce. Flowers for the house by all means, but not fruit or vegetables.’

At that moment Lucia, blinded by passion for Mallards, Tilling and the Tillingites, would have willingly agreed to pay the water-rate as well. If Miss Mapp had guessed that, she would certainly have named this unusual condition.