ust, and almost forgot
about Diva's gown.

"Found your hanky, dear?" she said. "Then shall we cut for partners
again? You and me, Major Benjy. Don't scold me if I play wrong."

She managed to get a seat that commanded a full-face view of the door,
for the next thing was to see how "the young couple" (as she had already
labelled them in her sarcastic mind) "looked" when they returned from
their amorous excursion to the orchid that grew on the lawn. They
entered, most unfortunately, while she was in the middle of playing a
complicated hand, and her brain was so switched off from the play by
their entrance that she completely lost the thread of what she was
doing, and threw away two tricks that simply required to be gathered up
by her, but now lurked below Diva's elbow. What made it worse was that
no trace of emotion, no heightened colour, no coy and downcast eye
betrayed a hint of what had happened on the lawn. With brazen effrontery
Susan informed her daughter that Mr. Wyse thought a little
leaf-mould....

"What a liar!" thought Miss Mapp, and triumphantly put her remaining
trump on to her dummy's best card. Then she prepared to make the best of
it.

"We've lost three, I'm afraid, Major Benjy," she said. "Don't you think
you overbid your hand just a little wee bit?"

"I don't know about that, Miss Elizabeth," said the Major. "If you
hadn't let those two spades go, and hadn't trumped my best heart----"

Miss Mapp interrupted with her famous patter.

"Oh, but if I had taken the spades," she said quickly, "I should have
had to lead up to Diva's clubs, and then they would have got the rough
in diamonds, and I should have never been able to get back into your
hand again. Then at the end if I hadn't trumped your heart, I should
have had to lead the losing spade and Diva would have over-trumped; and
brought in her club, and we should have gone down two more. If you
follow me, I think you'll agree that I was right to do that. But all
good players overbid their hands sometimes, Major Benjy. Such fun!"

The supper was unusually ostentatious, but Miss Mapp saw the reason for
that; it was clear that Susan wanted to impress poor Mr. Wyse with her
wealth, and probably when it came to settlements, he would learn some
very unpleasant news. But there were agreeable little circumstances to
temper her dislike of this extravagant display, for she was hungry, and
Diva, always a gross feeder, spilt some hot chocolate sauce on the
cr