A hand grabbed her wrist, forcing her to release the plastic sheet.

‘I’m telling!’

Belinda Scott stood glaring indignantly at Rosemary. Pinned to the bosom of her dress she wore a tattered red paper poppy which she had retrieved from the rubbish bin where it had been discarded by Miss Davis. She pointed to the loose flap of plastic.

‘I’ve caught you red-handed vandalising official property!’

‘Calm down, Belinda,’ said Rosemary.

‘Don’t you dare tell me to calm down, you old bag! I’m telling Miss Davis! They’ll stop your meals! They’ll give you jabs!’

‘No, please, I didn’t mean it!’ cried Weatherby suddenly, as though in the midst of a dream.

Grace Lebon stood up, knocking her chair over.

‘I don’t like it here,’ she announced. ‘I want to go home.’

‘Well tough titty, ‘cos you can’t!’ retorted Belinda, turning her wrath on this new target. ‘They don’t want you at home. Not that we want you here either, but we’re bleeding stuck with you, aren’t we? So if this place isn’t good enough for your royal highness, why don’t you do us all a favour and just die?’

‘MY BUM!’ shrieked Charles Symes. ‘JESUS GOD ALMIGHTY, MY BUM!’

‘No, no, please!’ moaned Weatherby, swaying to and fro. ‘Please don’t!’

Belinda Scott strode purposefully about the room, singing at the top of her voice.

‘But it really doesn’t matter if I’m always slightly pissed, ‘cos you’d none of you be missed! Y-o-u’d n-o-n-e o-f y-o-u b-e m-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ssed!’

Purvey wrung his hands and looked on imploringly.

‘I wonder if I could possibly impose on your hospitality for just one more night?’ he pleaded to no one in particular. ‘Don’t turn me out, I beg of you. I’d gladly leave at once, only I have nowhere else to go, you see.’

‘I demand to speak to the police immediately!’ hissed Samuel Rosenstein frantically into the disconnected telephone. ‘Our lives are all in danger!’