Boy’s younger brother, Andy, was there. He and May had two children and May looked, to Daisy’s interested eye, as if she might be expecting a third.

Boy wanted a son, of course, to be heir to the Fitzherbert title and fortune, but so far Daisy had failed to get pregnant. It was a sore point, and the evident fecundity of Andy and May made it worse. Daisy would have had a better chance if Boy spent more nights at home.

She was delighted to see her friend Eva Murray there – but without her husband: Jimmy Murray, now a captain, was with his unit and had not been able to get away, for most troops were in barracks and their officers were with them. Eva was family, now, because Jimmy was May’s brother and therefore an in-law. So Boy had been forced to overcome his prejudice against Jews and be polite to Eva.

Eva adored Jimmy as much now as she had three years ago when she had married him. They, too, had produced two children in three years. But Eva looked worried tonight, and Daisy could guess why. ‘How are your parents?’ she said.

‘They can’t get out of Germany,’ Eva said miserably. ‘The government won’t give them exit visas.’

‘Can’t Fitz help?’

‘He’s tried.’

‘What have they done to deserve this?’

‘It’s not them, particularly. There are thousands of German Jews in the same position. Only a few get visas.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ Daisy was more than sorry. She squirmed with embarrassment when she recalled how she and Boy had supported the Fascists in the early days. Her doubts had grown rapidly as the brutality of Fascism at home and abroad had become more and more obvious, and in the end she had been relieved when Fitz had complained that they were embarrassing him and had begged them to leave Mosley’s party. Now Daisy felt she had been an utter fool ever to have joined in the first place.

Boy was not quite so repentant. He still thought that upper-class white Europeans formed a superior species, chosen by God to rule the earth. But he no longer believed that was a practical political philosophy. He was often infuriated by British democracy, but he did not advocate abolishing it.

They sat down to dinner early. ‘Neville is making a statement in the House of Commons at half past seven,’ Fitz said. Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister. ‘I want to see it – I shall sit in the Peers’ Gallery. I may have to leave you before dessert.’

Andy said: ‘What do you think will happen, Papa?’

‘I really don’t know,’ Fitz said with a touch of exasperation. ‘Of course we would all like to avoid a war, but it’s important not to give an impression of indecision.’

Daisy was surprised: Fitz believed in loyalty and rarely criticized his government colleagues, even as obliquely as this.

Princess Bea said: ‘If there is a war, I shall go and live in Tŷ Gwyn.’