'But I can be here half an hour earlier tomorrow morning, if that would be convenient,' she said with a wink which caused the cloud of disappointment to disappear from my face. I returned the wink and remarked that this was a splendid idea.

When Sally had finished dressing herself she hurried out to prepare my breakfast and fifteen minutes later when I strolled into the dining room I was greeted by the appetizing aroma of frying bacon. 'Two eggs enough for you, Mister Andrew?' called out Sally. I replied in the affirmative as I poured out a cup of tea from the silver pot which she had placed on a tiny spirit lamp on the sideboard and helped myself to a slice of toast from the rack on the table.

I scanned through the headlines in the Daily Chronicle, then picked up the clutch of letters by my plate and put aside unopened the bills from local tradesmen which would be settled at the end of the month. But I slit open the envelope with an Irish postmark for I rightly surmised that this contained a letter from Lady 'Madcap Molly' Southard, the outrageous daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Hampshire who had told me that she was spending a few weeks with her relations in Killarney. Molly was a close acquaintance of both Teddy and myself, although I hasten to state that neither of us had made love to the extremely pretty girl. In fact, I doubt if any man had ever graced Molly's bed for her sapphic propensities were well-known to all the young blades in London.

Be that as it may, Molly was a great correspondent-as one of her three brothers wittily wrote back to her in Tennysonian parody:

Such newsy letters you send each week

To Mother, Clive and Trevor

At fifteen sheets most ladies end,

But you go on for ever!

Nevertheless, it was always a pleasure to receive one of Molly's multi-page missives and after I had tucked in to my plate of bacon and eggs I poured myself another cup of tea and sat back to peruse Molly's uninhibited letter, which began innocently enough by praising the beauties of the countryside around Killarney. She continued as follows: