‘There’s plenty of time,’ said Iona sweetly, ‘for me.’ But she looked suddenly sulky and fiddled with her glass, looking down. She knew very well it would have been better for her career to stay married to Terence: she was already finding it harder as only one of his ex-wives, couldn’t get quite the same attention, and she was twenty-six now, that was old in Hollywood. No one knew it was Terence who had forced her to go, who suddenly in the spring wouldn’t sleep with her any more, had divorced her in Reno before she’d even had time to get used to the idea.

‘Will it?’ said Mrs O’Brien anxiously, speaking at last but already slurring her words very slightly.

‘Will it what?’ said Iona, looking up at Mrs O’Brien in slight puzzlement.

‘Go down the drain, his career?’ said Mrs O’Brien.

‘Depends,’ said Iona, taking a compact out of her handbag, staring at herself, still with the dark glasses on, then putting on more lipstick, moving her lips against each other, looking at herself from both sides. The family, all intimately connected to show business and quite used to seeing make-up being applied, nevertheless all stared. Then Pauline smiled like a hostess.

‘Oh sorry Iona,’ she said, ‘you don’t really know our family do you, perhaps you might have met the children years ago but – well they’re grown up now,’ and she introduced everybody to Iona, whose eyes rested speculatively on Benedict. The doorbell rang.

The doorbell didn’t stop ringing from then on, even though the door was open; people seemed to want to announce themselves by ringing the bell loudly and long, I’m here I’m here. The guests arrived thick and fast, crowding in at the door group after group, thronging in the hall, spilling out into the garden, noisily greeting the Bonhams and each other. They held out glasses and accepted drinks. Anthony stood in the hallway, greeting people warmly, kissing them, making himself as charming as he knew very well he could. He was peeved to notice that Molly had brought her young musician, but smiled knowingly down at her when she kissed him on the cheek and thanked him for his note. He saw that she was dragged away almost at once by Viola; the two of them sat together on a corner of the lawn, heads together, laughing. It made him feel slightly odd.

Pauline also watched Molly, and felt, suddenly, some odd constriction in her heart. Oh God I missed her, she thought. Perhaps we will be friends again after all. She put on her big dark glasses suddenly so that nobody would see the sudden softening in her eyes.