‘Funk!’ called Joan excitedly, and he pushed the doors open and went in. She heard wave after wave of exclamations arising. The door, which had swung to after him, did not open again; she could no longer see his shadow on the glass. She began to wish she had not thrown her glove into the lion’s den. Joan had a healthy contempt for women like Miss Fitzgerald, but she was a little daunted by the habitués of the drawing-room, who played bridge crushingly well, were impeccably manicured and had a hardish eye that negatived one’s importance. She sat watching the door anxiously. After all, he belonged to those people; it was possible he might not reappear.

But Colonel Duperrier respected these ladies too deeply to wish to remain among them. He came out again modestly, but with an air of achievement.

‘Here you are! But I don’t know that it’s really much better.’

‘I’ll pretend it is, anyway. Did they mind your taking it?’

‘No,’ said he, uncommunicative. He drew up a chair and sat not far away from her while she scribbled experimentally with the new pen. It gave him a restful, anchored feeling to sit beside somebody who was doing something. He looked at the back of Joan’s neck, from which the cropped hair fell away, with uncovetous appreciation. What he believed himself to be feeling was that it would have been jolly to have had a daughter. If Colonel Duperrier’s wife were to die, he would marry some girl of twenty-three who would be very much in love with him and with whom he would be very happy. Colonel Duperrier had never thought of this, but it was evident to any woman. As she continued to draw profiles on an envelope and showed no signs of going on with her letter, he inquired, ‘Have you any idea how long that lift’s been out of order? I rather wish they’d let me overhaul the thing. Of course, I don’t profess to know anything about mechanics, but I’ve always had a bent that way. I can’t help feeling I ——’

‘It’s been getting sicker and sicker since this morning. I think the people going upstairs after lunch must have finished it. You see, Veronica and Victor were playing hide-and-seek with the Barry children, and some of them got into the lift and sent it up and down full speed about four times without stopping.’

‘Very high-spirited of them,’ said Colonel Duperrier. ‘Can’t young Ammering get a job?’

‘No, he can’t,’ Joan said defensively. ‘It worries him awfully. The War’s come very hard indeed on our generation. I don’t think people understand a bit.’

‘Perhaps they don’t,’ said Colonel Duperrier, who had also fought.