The game was necessarily a light-hearted affair, for the Prince and White were the only really skilled players, and Janet insisted upon being told continually which ball to aim at, which pocket to put it in, and how to handle her cue. White took no part in the coaching of his daughter, but seized the opportunity afforded by the Prince's patiently instructing her, to draw Wally aside, and say to him in a confidential undertone: "If you're looking for a good thing - mind you, when I say good I mean a regular snip! - I think I can put you on to it."

Wally, who was imbibing his third whisky since dinner, was feeling slightly querulous, and replied in a Complaining voice: "What about that money I lent you?"

"That'll be all right, old man," said White soothingly. "No need for you to worry about that."

"Oh, there isn't, isn't there? That's what you think, but I don't, Nice to-do there'd be if Ermy found out about it."

"Well, she won't. I tell you it's all right!"

"No, she won't find out because now I come to think of it you've got to pay it back next week," said Wally triumphantly.

These words, which were spoken in an unguarded tone, reached Mary's ears. At that moment, Janet, taking painstaking aim, miscued, and it became White's turn to play. As he walked over to the table, Mary caught Steel's eye, and realised, with a curious sinking of her spirits, that he also had overheard Wally's last speech. He was standing beside Mary, and asked in an abrupt undertone whether Wally had lent money to White.

"I don't know," Mary replied repressively.

Steel's hard gaze travelled to Ermyntrude's unconscious profile. He muttered: "Exploiting her! By God, I He checked himself, remembering to whom he spoke, and said briefly: "Sorry!"

Mary thought it wisest to disregard his outburst, and began to talk of something else, but she was privately a good deal perturbed by what she had heard, and contrived, soon after the departure of the Whites, to get a word with Wally alone. Knowing that evasive methods would not answer, she asked him bluntly whether he had lent money to White, and refused to be satisfied with his easy assurance that it was quite all right.