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that it mattered one little bit, of course. She was having a marvelously enjoyable evening with the company she had.
    â€œMama and I called on Dominic and Ellen at Lord Harrowby’s this afternoon,” Anna said, turning around in her seat. The gentlemen had gone to fetch some lemonade. “We went to see the babies really, of course, though we pretended to be calling on Dominic and Ellen.” She giggled.
    â€œI know,” Madeline said. “I find myself doing the same thing.”
    â€œThey were awake,” Anna said, “and I was allowed to hold Olivia. She is quite adorable, isn’t she? Charles would not be picked up. He was exercising his lungs. Ellen says that he has still not reconciled his mind to the fact that he is a twin and must share everyone’s attention. He deserves to be ignored, she said, when he is being so cross. But for all that she picked him up and kissed him and soothed him, and Dominic laughed at her and told her that he could see already that all the disciplining of their children was going to fall on his shoulders.”
    â€œFrom what I have seen,” Madeline said, “they are one as bad as the other.”
    â€œIt seems strange to see Dominic in a nursery, doting on two babies,” Anna said with something of a sigh. “Just a year ago I was still swearing to anyone who cared to listen that I was going to marry him.” She giggled again.
    â€œYou don’t seem to be pining away with grief,” her father said, entering the conversation unexpectedly. “Sawyer three weeks ago, Dartford two weeks ago, Bailey last week, Chambers this week.” He was counting off on his fingers. “And Ashley fits in there somewhere too. One of these days, Madeline, I am going to embarrass puss here by calling one of her young men by another one’s name. Sometimes I wish we were Catholic. I could pack her off to a convent and have some peace.”
    â€œWilliam!” his wife said, horrified. “What a thing to say. Take no notice of him, Madeline. He does like to tease, you know. Everyone knows that Anna is the apple of his eye.”
    Madeline laughed and took her glass of lemonade from Colonel Huxtable.
    â€œMr. Purnell is looking very handsome,” Anna said. “He always did. I wonder if he remembers me. I was just fifteen when he was at Amberley four years ago, and everyone else ignored me. But he was very kind, I remember, just as if he understood perfectly well how horrid it is to be fifteen and neither a child nor a woman. He has probably forgotten me.”
    â€œAh,” Madeline said, smiling at the colonel, “it is cool and tastes very good, Jason. I wish Mrs. Denton would direct that some windows be opened.”
    â€œLet’s see if he does remember me,” Anna said, laying a hand on Madeline’s arm. “Do you think we can cross this crowded room without being trampled on?” She laughed lightly after ascertaining that Mr. Chambers was talking with someone else. “We can pretend that we have gone to pay our respects to Edmund and Alexandra. He really is excessively handsome, is he not, Madeline? Who is the lady with him? I am jealous already. She is very pretty.”
    â€œI don’t know,” Madeline said. “I have never seen her before.” They were on their way across the room already, their arms linked. She had really had no choice in the matter without making a pointed refusal. A refusal to greet her own brother and sister-in-law? It had been out of the question. Her heart felt as if it were attached to the soles of her slippers.
    And she found to her own annoyance that as usual when James Purnell was anywhere in the vicinity she could not behave with any naturalness. She did not know whether to smile or not. And when she decided to smile, she did not know how brightly. And she could fix her eyes only on her brother and felt she would surely drown or die if she let them slip