‘Gone in, then. I suppose he still potters about palatial corridors with a key on his bottom.’ A disturbing thought seemed to strike Kenneth. ‘Oh God!’ he said faintly. ‘Don’t tell me you are the Lord Chamberlain.’

‘I am not the Lord Chamberlain.’

‘It would have been just my luck.’

The dance band came to an inconclusive halt. Barnaby Grant and Sophy Jason returned to the table. Giovanni elegantly steered Lady Braceley to hers where the Major sat in a trance. The Van der Veghels, hand-linked, joined them.

Giovanni explained that the second driver would return Sophy, the Van der Veghels and Grant to their hotels whenever they wished and that he himself would be responsible for the other members of the party.

Alleyn noticed that Toni’s Pad had not been named by Giovanni and that there had been no general, open announcement of the extra attraction. Only those rather furtive approaches to the male members of the party. And through Kenneth to Lady Braceley.

The Van der Veghels said they would like to dance a little more and then go home. Sophy and Grant agreed to this and, when the band struck up again, returned to the floor. Alleyn found himself alone with the Van der Veghels, who contentedly sipped champagne.

‘I’m not much good, Baroness,’ Alleyn said. ‘But will you risk it?’

‘Of course.’

She herself, like many big women, was very good—steady and light. ‘But you dance well,’ she said after a moment. ‘Why do you say not so? It is this British self-deprecation we hear about?’

‘It would be hard to blunder with you as one’s partner.’

‘Ah-ha, ah-ha, a compliment! Better and better!’

‘You are not going on to this other party.’

‘No. My husband thinks it would not suit us to go. He did not very much care for the style of the suggestion. It is more for the men, he said, so I tease him and say he is a big square and I am not so unsophisticated.’

‘But he remains firm?’

‘He remains firm. So you go?’

‘I’ve said yes but now you alarm me.’

‘No!’ cried the Baroness with a sort of obligatory archness. ‘That I do not believe. You are a cool one. A sophisticate. That I see very clearly.’

‘Change your mind. Come and take care of me.’