Athens and heavenly noses … Mum said I should.’ Miss O’Brookomore threw upon her head a bewildering affair with a vampire-bat’s-wing slanting behind. ‘Patience,’ she murmured. ‘We haven’t been here long enough.’ ‘Quite long enough to find out the English chemist isn’t English!’ ‘Why, aren’t you up to the mark?’ ‘I was attempting to ward off freckles.’ ‘Pretty Mrs Wilna often used to say the utmost she ever did was to apply a little cold-cream just as she got into bed.’ Miss Collins moved from one chair to another. ‘Oh, come and look! Oh!’ ‘What ever is it?’ ‘There’s such a shocking dispute in the Square!’ Beneath a bruised blue, almost a violet, sky lay the town. Very white and very clean. On the pavement some youths, with arms entwined, seemed to be locked in the convulsions of a dance. ‘Let us go down and sit in a café.’ Miss O’Brookomore became evasive. ‘I want you to repress yourself a little for a few days. Be more discreet.’ ‘Because—’ ‘Professor and Mrs Cowsend have the rooms next ours …’ ‘Buz!
