Norton was now thoroughly put out. ‘You remind me.’ His tone was now one of serious business. ‘I still have not yet electrified you. I must get around to it soon, for there is nothing on earth that could bring me greater delight. You two could both do with a horrible shock.’

The girls squealed together. ‘Oh, yes please! We long for it! Do, Norton, do!’

But the three had now reached the lawn, the archers were already begun and Norton ran off to join them.

The two girls settled themselves down upon a tweed blanket. Being not yet of an age to join in with the men – but already too superior by far to be seen with mere boys – they instead adopted the position of two aged chaperones at the edge of the dance floor, from which better to observe the whole party. Their interest in the social behaviour of the Godmersham grown-ups was, anyway, mutual and keen, and that particular summer provided them every opportunity with which to indulge it.

‘Oh, do look at poor Marianne,’ Cassy began in tones of great anguish. ‘I am sure she has not been the same since they banished her clergyman. It seems disappointment is so bad for one’s looks.’

‘A cautionary tale for us all,’ Mary replied, as she watched Marianne drift distractedly about the lawn as if she were the harassed mother of multitudes, rather than a single woman approaching twenty-two years.

‘I fear,’ Cassy said darkly, ‘there’s not much to be done about it. Parents simply always get their own way, and even our tender hearts will, no doubt, one day be broken. Is that not what we have learned from our novels? First one finds love.’ She ticked off each point. ‘Then, one is horribly thwarted. And it is only once one is in absolute bits that the happy ending arrives.’

‘Oh, do stop! It’s too gloomy!’ Mary shuddered, suddenly chilled in the sunshine. Having already endured her fair share of misery, she was quite sure she would not survive any more. ‘I simply refuse to be thwarted. Let us pledge, here and now, that will not happen to us.’ She held up one little finger, and Cassy linked in her own, and together they vowed never to bow to authority. ‘Now, darling, I beg you. Pray, change the subject.’

They turned their attentions to the handsome young couple currently enjoying tea on the terrace, displaying a closeness that bordered on intimate.

‘Goodness.’ Cassy’s response was more moral guardian than younger sister. ‘Papa should really keep more of an eye. I know he is bedevilled by gout, but really.’

‘On William and Emily, you mean?’ Mary sighed. They never passed up the opportunity to use the governess’s Christian name. It always brought with it a delicious small frisson.