She said in an agitated voice, “But, my dear-where are you? And I’m just starting-I really am.”

“Darling, you always start half an hour too soon-you know you do. I’ll be as quick as lightning, but you must listen. Are you listening?”

“Yes-yes-But haven’t you sailed? I thought you were at sea-”

“Well, thank goodness I’m not. Darling, it was a wash-out.”

“A wash-out?”

“Absolutely. And I shall put it across Madeleine Deshenka next time I see her-only I don’t suppose I shall now, because from the way she talked you’d have thought she knew these Merville people in their cradles, and I only found out by accident two days before we were due to start that she’d picked them up in the Casino at Monte Carlo a couple of months ago, and all she really knew about them was that they’d made a packet.”

Miss Lucy gave a horrified gasp.

“Oh, my dear-how dreadful! I always said-”

Lee made a face at her end of the line.

“Darling, I know you did. But this isn’t the moment to trample-it really isn’t.”

“Oh, Lee, you can’t go with people like that-not to South America -you really can’t!”

“I’m not going. Anyhow it wasn’t them any longer-it was him. They had a row-darling, I can’t begin to tell you what a really first-class row it was-and then she walked out and took the little girl with her. And he seemed to think I was going to stay and just sail away with him into the blue, so I walked out too, and here I am.”

“Where?”

“Victoria Station. Don’t get rattled, darling-nothing has happened, and nothing is going to happen. But listen. Can I have the key of Cousin Mary’s flat and stay there for a bit while I look round for something to bring in the shekels, because this has just about cleaned me out and it won’t run to digs.”

Miss Lucy felt, and sounded, completely distracted.

“Oh, my dear! How very, very unfortunate! And I’ve paid for my tickets, or I might have been able-Oh dear, I wish I weren’t going away, but Mary made me promise-you know how unselfish she was, and she thought it would take my mind off. She’d been an invalid so long, and of course that is always a strain, and she made me promise that as soon as I could after the funeral I would go right away-and when Peter told me about this cruise-”