Carolyn curtsying to the floor and rising like a moth to greet guest after guest. She had indeed made an entrance, but she had done it so terrifically, so deliberately, with a kind of twinkle in her eye, that Alleyn found himself uncritical and caught up in the warmth of her famous “personality.” When at last she saw him, and he awaited that moment impatiently, she came towards him with both hands outstretched and eyes like stars. Alleyn rose to the occasion, bent his long back, and kissed each of the hands. The Forrest family goggled at this performance, and Miss Forrest looked more alert than ever.

“A-a-ah!” said Carolyn with another of her melodious hoots. “My distinguished friend. The famous—”

“No, no!” exclaimed Alleyn hastily.

“Why not! I insist on everybody knowing I’ve got a lion at my party.”

She spoke in her most ringing stage voice. Everybody turned to listen to her. In desperation Alleyn hurriedly lugged a small packet out of his pocket and, with another bow, put it into her hands. “I’m making a walloping great fool of myself,” he thought.

“A birthday card,” he said. “I hope you’ll allow me—”

Carolyn who had already received an enormous number of expensive presents, instantly gazed about her with an air of flabbergasted delight that suggested the joy of a street waif receiving a five-pound note.

“It’s for me!” she cried. “For me, for me, for me.” She looked brilliantly at Alleyn and at her guests. “You’ll all have to wait. It must be opened now. Quick! Quick!” She wriggled her fingers and tore at the paper with excited squeaks.

“Good Lord,” thought Alleyn, “how does she get away with it? In any other woman it would be nauseating.”

His gift was at last freed from its wrappings. A small green object appeared. The surface was rounded and graven into the semblance of a squat figure with an enormous lolling head and curved arms and legs. The face was much formalised, but it had a certain expression of grinning malevolence. Carolyn gazed at it in delighted bewilderment.

“But what is it? It’s jade. It’s wonderful—but—?”

“It’s greenstone,” said Alleyn.

“It is a tiki, Miss Dacres,” said a deep voice. The Maori, Dr. Rangi Te Pokiha, came forward, smiling. Carolyn turned to him.

“A tiki?”

“Yes. And a very beautiful one, if I may say so.” He glanced at Alleyn.

“Dr. Te Pokiha was good enough to find it for me,” explained Alleyn.

“I want to know about it—all about it,” insisted Carolyn.