“No, I realise that,” Lord Dorrington replied. “So what I am going to suggest is this – follow the balustrade along the bank of the river until you come to the end of the garden. Beyond it is the main road.”

He paused and went on,

“I think, if I remember rightly, it is bordered not by a wall but by a yew hedge. I have the feeling that you will be able to negotiate it.”

“Where shall I meet you?” Alyna asked.

“I am going back to the house,” Lord Dorrington replied. “I shall make my farewells to Lady Glossop and thank her for a very pleasant evening. I will then stop my carriage on the road near the bridge. Keep in the shadows of the yew hedge and don’t come forward until you see me alight from the carriage.”

“I will do that.”

“You promise?” Lord Dorrington asked sharply. “I trust you to meet me there.”

“If you mean that I might throw myself in the river when you have left me,” Alyna said in a low voice, “I will not do so. You are right, I have been a coward. But it’s difficult – very difficult!”

“I will meet you on the road in four to five minutes time,” Lord Dorrington said. “Now do as I tell you, Alyna, just follow the balustrade.”

She looked up at him, her eyes wide and questioning in the light from the lantern.

“You are very kind to me,” she said softly. “Why?”

“I have a feeling that I shall ask myself that very same question before the night is out,” Lord Dorrington said with a faint smile. “In the meantime, Alyna, as it is drawing near to midnight, I suggest that you start moving quickly towards the road.”

At his words Alyna gave a nervous glance over her shoulder as if she were afraid of someone appearing from the direction of the house.

Then without speaking again, with her hand on the grey stone of the balustrade, she walked through the fragrant shrubs and disappeared.

Lord Dorrington walked in the opposite direction.

He moved slowly with an air of fashionable languor across the lawns and in through the open French windows of the ballroom.

The tapers in the huge crystal chandeliers shed their light on the elegance of the Beau Monde dancing sedately on the polished floor of the ballroom.

The women guests shimmered with jewels, tiaras surmounted their elaborately arranged hair and their full-skirted, draped, embroidered, fulsomely trimmed gowns also glittered with gems.

The men were equally magnificent, bestrewn with decorations, and on some silk-stockinged legs beneath the conventional white satin breeches there glittered the Order of the Garter.

The younger men, following the fashion set by Beau Brummel and the Prince of Wales, were less ornate, but their high intricately tied cravats were a decoration in themselves.