Diana walked with her to the door.

“ ’Tis not amusing at all when one has no friends; but last year, when my cousins were with us and papa took a house for the season on the North Parade, ’twas most enjoyable. I wish you had been there, instead of with that disagreeable Aunt Jennifer!”

She kissed her relative most affectionately and lighted her across the landing to her room. Then she returned to her room and shut the door, giving a tired little yawn.

It was at about that moment that his Grace of Andover was ushered into the already crowded cardroom of my Lord Avon’s house in Catharine Place, and was greeted with ribald cries of “Oho, Belmanoir!”, and “Where’s the lady, Devil?”