and
peeped into dining-room and boudoir, didn't you? There they were on the
lawn, and they kissed each other. So I said to myself: 'Dear Susan has
got him! Perseverance rewarded!'"

"H'm. Only a guess of yours. Or did Susan tell you?"

"No, dear, she said nothing. But Susan was always secretive."

"But they might not have been engaged at all," said Diva with a
brightened eye. "Man doesn't always marry a woman he kisses!"

Diva had betrayed the lowness of her mind now by hazarding that which
had for days dwelt in Miss Mapp's mind as almost certain. She drew in
her breath with a hissing noise as if in pain.

"Darling, what a dreadful suggestion," she said. "No such idea ever
occurred to me. Secretive I thought Susan might be, but immoral, never.
I must forget you ever thought that. Let's talk about something less
painful. Perhaps you would like to tell me more about the Contessa."

Diva had the grace to look ashamed of herself, and to take refuge in the
new topic so thoughtfully suggested.

"Couldn't see clearly," she said. "So dark. But tall and lean. Sneezed."

"That might happen to anybody, dear," said Miss Mapp, "whether tall or
short. Nothing more?"

"An eyeglass," said Diva after thought.

"A single one?" asked Miss Mapp. "On a string? How strange for a
woman."

That seemed positively the last atom of Diva's knowledge, and though
Miss Mapp tried on the principles of psycho-analysis to disinter
something she had forgotten, the catechism led to no results whatever.
But Diva had evidently something else to say, for after finishing her
tea she whizzed backwards and forwards from window to fireplace with
little grunts and whistles, as was her habit when she was struggling
with utterance. Long before it came out, Miss Mapp had, of course,
guessed what it was. No wonder Diva found difficulty in speaking of a
matter in which she had behaved so deplorably....

"About that wretched dress," she said at length. "Got it stained with
chocolate first time I wore it, and neither I nor Janet can get it out."

("Hurrah," thought Miss Mapp.)

"Must have it dyed again," continued Diva. "Thought I'd better tell you.
Else you might have yours dyed the same colour as mine again.
Kingfisher-blue to crimson-lake. All came out of Vogue and Mrs. Trout.
Rather funny, you know, but expensive. You should have seen your face,
Elizabeth, when you came in to Susan's the other night."

"Should I, dearest?" said Miss Mapp, trembling