‘Is there anywhere else you’d like to go now we are in this giddy metropolis?’

What I’d like – at least, what I think I ought to do – is to go to the Police Station. What should Miss Benson say if I said that? What excuse could I give? She’s no fool; she might connect my two errands. No, I must leave it until Saturday.

‘No, nowhere else, thank you.’

‘Then I’ll take you to the Club and buy you a drink. To make up for losing your parcel.’

‘I don’t drink.’

‘Look,’ Miss Benson said, ‘if I may say so, that’s a silly sort of thing to say. So off-putting. And you only mean that you don’t drink alcohol, which leaves quite a range of things you can drink. Lovely tomato juice; and then it looks as though you’re just taking care of your waistline. Not that you have to worry; you’ve got a lovely figure.’

‘Me?’

‘You. And a lovely complexion, too. And now that your hair’s short and curly . . .’ She broke off and grinned. ‘I guess I’m speaking out of turn, but you could do a lot more with yourself if you took a little trouble.’

Miss Mayfield made one of those inarticulate sounds, expressive of attention, in which people indulge when their attention is elsewhere. Miss Benson chose to take it as an invitation to proceed with her lecture.

‘That lipstick, for instance. I know it. Eve Eden’s Natural Pink. We used to use it at school and think what devils we were! The point is, if you use a lipstick, you might as well use a real one. And if you haven’t a moral objection to a smear of powder, why jib at a spot of rouge? Have I offended you? Honestly, it’s only because you are such a dear, and it seems a pity you don’t make the best of yourself. Ma Westleton, now, she could rub her face in Bath brick for all I’d care. Actually, she was always on at me – where did I get my hair cut, what powder did I use. I used to give her a bum steer every time.’

‘A what?’ asked Miss Mayfield, thinking that even in her present distracted state of mind she could not have heard what she thought.

‘Sorry. It’s an American expression, meaning wrong direction, hint or advice. I got quite a kick out of seeing her look sillier than usual. All for the Canon’s benefit, of course. But you, that’s different. . . . Here we are.’

She swung the car expertly into the forecourt of a house which stood back from the road and which announced itself to be the Selbury Town and Country Club. She parked alongside three other cars.

‘There’ll be nobody here. We’re early.’