‘But I’d like to—it’s difficult to suggest—’

‘I’ll be perfectly all right,’ she said with savage brightness. ‘Please don’t give it another thought.’

‘Why, by the way, are you still in the theatre?’

‘I was going to sleep here,’ Martyn said loudly. ‘I did last night. The night-watchman knows.’

‘You would be paid on Friday.’

‘Like the actors?’

‘Certainly. How much is there in the exchequer between now and Friday?’ Martyn was silent and he said with a complete change of voice: ‘My manners, you will already have been told, are notoriously offensive but I don’t believe I was going to say anything that would have offended you.’

‘I’ve got two and fourpence.’

He opened the door and shouted: ‘Jacko!’ into the echoing darkness. She heard the greenroom door creak and in a moment or two Jacko came in. He carried a hoard with a half-finished drawing pinned to it. This he exhibited to Poole. ‘Crazy, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘Helena’s costume for the ball. What must I do but waste my beauty-sleep concocting it. Everybody will have to work very hard if it is to be made. I see you are in need of my counsel. What goes on?’

‘Against my better judgement,’ Poole said, ‘I’m going to follow your advice. You always think you’re indispensable at auditions. Give me some light out there and then sit in front.’

‘It is past midnight. This child has worked and worried herself into a complete bouleversement. She is as pale as a pierrot.’

Poole looked at her. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked her. ‘It won’t take ten minutes.’

‘I don’t understand, but I’m all right.’

‘There you are, Jacko,’ Poole said and sounded pleased. ‘It’s over to you.’

Jacko took her by the shoulders and gently pushed her down on the chair. ‘Attention,’ he said. ‘We make a bargain. I live not so far from here in an apartment house kept by a well-disposed French couple. An entirely respectable house, you understand, with no funny business. At the top one finds an attic room as it might be in a tale for children, and so small, it is but twice the size of its nice little bed. The rental is low, within the compass of a silly girl who gets herself into equivocal situations. At my recommendation she will be accommodated in the attic which is included in my portion of the house and will pay me the rent at the end of a week. But in exchange for my good offices she does for us a little service. Again, no funny business.’

‘Oh, dear!’ Martyn said. She leant towards the dressing-shelf and propped her face in her hands. ‘It sounds so wonderful,’ she said and tried to steady her voice, ‘a nice little bed.’