"Yes, yes… I remember when I was a child… Sideboards groaning with hot dishes. Yes, it was a luxurious way of life."
"We endeavour to give people anything they ask for."
"Including seed cake and muffins-yes, I see. To each according to his need-I see… Quite Marxian."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Just a thought, Humfries. Extremes meet."
Colonel Luscombe turned away, taking the key Miss Gorringe offered him. A page boy sprang to attention and conducted him to the elevator. He saw in passing that Lady Selina Hazy was now sitting with her friend Jane Something or other.
2
"And I suppose you're still living at that dear St. Mary Mead?" Lady Selina was asking. "Such a sweet unspoiled village. I often think about it. Just the same as ever, I suppose?"
"Well, not quite." Miss Marple reflected on certain aspects of her place of residence. The new housing developments. The additions to the Village Hall, the altered appearance of the High Street with its up-todate shop fronts… She sighed. "One has to accept change, I suppose."
"Progress," said Lady Selina vaguely. "Though it often seems to me that it isn't progress. All these smart plumbing fixtures they have nowadays. Every shade of colour and superb what they call 'finish'- but do any of them really pull? Or push, when they're that kind. Every time you go to a friend's house, you find some kind of a notice in the Loo-'Press sharply and release,' 'Pull to the left,' 'Release quickly.' But in the old days, one just pulled up a handle any kind of way, and cataracts of water came at once- There's the dear Bishop of Medmenham," Lady Selina broke off to say, as a handsome, elderly cleric passed by. "Practically quite blind, I believe. But such a splendid militant priest."
A little clerical talk was indulged in, interspersed by Lady Selina's recognition of various friends and acquaintances, many of whom were not the people she thought they were.