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when you gather it, as my three most satisfying sounds, ’ she said.
    Daniel smiled. ‘ I didn ’ t know a strawberry did go “ plop ” . ’
    ‘ Oh, it does, ’ she whispered into the pin-dropping hush which settled on the audience, expectant of the soft opening notes of the overture.
    Enchantment followed. Once, at one of the more graphic ‘ pictures ’ in the Moussorgsky, Verity turned to share a smile with her companion, only to realize he had been studying her profile, for how long she did not know. Her smile quavered, grew embarrassed and she looked away. So did he.
    In the interval they went out to the foyer for air, talking about the programme and eavesdropping on the musical gossip going on around them. There the secretary of the Lyre Group spotted Verity and came over to say how glad he was to see her and to enquire for Mrs. Lytton.
    She introduced him to Daniel Wyatt and was standing a little aside as the two men talked, when suddenly she froze to stillness at the familiar turn of a man ’ s head. Max Doran... ! A second later he had seen her too and was plunging towards her, both hands outstretched and his exaggerated ‘ Dar- ling ! ’ loud above the chatter of the crowd.
    He imprisoned her hands in his. Unobtrusively she twisted them free. How dared he? How could he have forgotten they had parted in hostility and a long sullen silence on his part? But he seemed conveniently oblivious of all that as he babbled,
    ‘ Verity! Though if I spelled you “ To the rescue ” , I ’ d be nearer the truth. For rescue me you must, from the rest of this grisly experience. I insist. I can not take any more. But you are alone, aren ’ t you? Or at least with someone you can ditch? For pity ’ s sweet sake, don ’ t tell me you ’ re not! ’
    Through stiff unyielding lips she said, ‘ I ’ m not alone. I ’ m with someone. ’ Her oblique glance indicated the two men, and Max looked their way.
    ‘ With one of them? Oh no !’ he mouthed. ‘ Which one? The weedy one armed with a score, or the tall lantern-jawed Daddy-Oh? ’
    ‘ Not the one with the score. The other. His name is Wyatt, and he ’ s the new High taking Father ’ s place at Clere. ’
    ‘ You don ’ t say? ’ Max cut short his stare of interest to toss her a crumb of condolence. ‘ I was sorry about R. L., Verity. But I didn ’ t know until a good deal later. You realized that? ’
    ‘ It didn ’ t matter. You wrote to Mother, didn ’ t you? ’ Wishing she needn ’ t ask, Verity added, ‘ What are you doing here? And what did you mean about needing to be rescued? ’
    ‘ Just that. I ’ ve been press-ganged, dragooned, corralled by a female I thought had fun possibilities, only to find she ’ s Cultured with a capital “ C .” She must have shed a lot of her inhibitions at the party where I met her, and with her metaphorical hair down she was quite something to look at. I fell. You know how easily I do? ’
    Verity moistened her lips. ‘ Yes. ’
    ‘ Yes, well—after a bit of by-play, during which I told her I knew these parts, she asked me to stay for a night or two at her home at Castle Rising. So I came. Oh, my! Her parents and the exalted intellectual company they keep! It seemed the lesser of a lot of evils to bring Lola to this concert, though how wrong I was. But then, when she trailed a bit, talking counterpoint or something to some long-haired type she knows, and I saw you, I chanted “ Eureka “ , and you can ’ t let me down, Verity my pet, you really can ’ t. Say we slip off somewhere together now and face the consequences later? ’
    Verity shook her head. ‘ I can ’ t. What ’ s more, Max, if you were alone and I were and we ’ d met here or anywhere at all, I shouldn ’ t want to. Not any more. I ’ ve—got over you. ’
    His mouth took an ugly line which she recognized, ‘ Speaking frankly, eh? Well, come to that, I ’ ve got over you too. ’
    Calm now, detached, ‘ Then why salute me as