‘Yes… How did you know?’

‘I told you Hugh was frightfully good, didn’t I? I said he was bound to astound us all. Well, I was right!’ Melisande grimaced enigmatically at Payne. She laid her hand on his arm. ‘Do not be alarmed. I do not dabble in the dark arts. I tend to hear things, that’s all. I believe “Hugh” means “bright in mind and in spirit”, correct? I used to have a boyfriend called Hugh, that’s how I know.’

‘Would it amuse you to know that in Pig Latin “Hugh Payne” is “Ughhay Aynepay”?’ Payne avoided Antonia’s eye.

‘This is one of the funniest things I have ever heard in my life!’ Melisande laughed and clapped her hands.

‘I used to enjoy my job. I try to like the books I read, I really do, but slush piles are depressing things,’ Winifred said. ‘I’m afraid bad writing leaves me completely demoralized.’

‘I have never regarded acting as a “job”,’ Melisande said. ‘Actors are the opposite of people!’

‘I read a review of one of your books, Antonia. It was in the Telegraph, I think. The plot was described as “flowing with the fluid precision of the Changing of the Guard”.’

‘That was a bit silly,’ Antonia said quickly.

Winifred smiled. ‘The whole book was “cunningly conceived, satisfyingly shaped and enormously entertaining”. I’ll certainly get some of your books now that I have met you.’

‘You needn’t bother, really.’ Remarks like that always threw Antonia into an agony of embarrassment. At the same time she decided Winifred would be more interesting to talk to than her sister.

‘I love detective stories. Always have, since I was a girl. Nobody seems to take any care over plotting any longer, do they? Most modern crime writers seem obsessed with – issues. Commendable but tedious.’

‘I love stories that deal with the destruction of innocence and the corrupting effects of great wealth.’ Melisande spoke in a serio-comic voice.