‘She believes publicity is everything. God he was so peculiar on Saturday, all that endless chat about the British Mafia In Hollywood as he calls it. Who gives a damn?’ She looked at her watch. ‘Come on, let’s go to the movies, you said you wanted to see The Piano again, it’s on down the road and the early show is cheaper.’

And they left the café and the noisy cappuccino machine and wandered in the sunshine down Greek Street to the cinema, still chatting: two actresses, resting.

*

‘You’d only miss one performance of The Seagull, next Monday night, they’re happy to let your understudy go on once.’ Juliet Lyall was also drinking coffee, but in her agent’s office, poised elegantly on the cream sofa, under a large ageing but beautiful photograph of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara.

Her agent, Horton, sat in front of a computer and a telephone and a fax on his assistant’s desk and was using them all. ‘It worked, you did it! This is a fantastic chance, fantastic, it’ll up your status absolutely, it’s what we’ve been waiting for for years. Female lead in a huge American movie, fantastic chance, fantastic. You’ll fly first class of course, you can travel on a day flight on Sunday, meet the director in Hollywood on Monday morning, leave again early evening, back here 6 am Tuesday, sleep all day, back at the theatre Tuesday night. It’s imperative darling, that you go, and The Seagull producers’ll use it for publicity.’

‘They won’t give me one more night off?’

‘I don’t think you should ask for it. People ask for their money back if you don’t appear.’

Juliet sighed but Horton did not give her even a moment. ‘You are a business Juliet and this is a chance in a million. Plenty of time for you to get tired when you’re not working.’

‘Don’t tell me that,’ she said tightly. ‘I know.’

‘Right,’ and he punched the phone, pushed a paper through the fax machine, opened the door for a moment to the outer office to call something. Doors slammed, voices called, phones rang out of time with each other. ‘It’s a fantastic part,’ he said, ‘and not quite like anything you’ve ever done before. The script arrived at your house last night, did it? I had a look first of course, fantastic part, very unusual.’

‘I know,’ said Juliet. A small flicker of anxiety just at the corner of her mind, pushed away, gone.