‘You’re a good old stick and no end of a mimic, and you know us all to the bottom of our hearts.’

‘Not all that much,’ the priest said, ‘there’s probably a good deal of good at the bottom of your hearts.’

Sylvia said:

‘Thanks.’ She asked suddenly: ‘Look here. Was it what you saw of us – the future mothers of England, you know, and all – at Miss Lampeter’s – that made you take to the slums? Out of disgust and despair?’

‘Oh, let’s not make melodrama out of it,’ the priest answered. ‘Let’s say I wanted a change. I couldn’t see that I was doing any good.’

‘You did us all the good there was done,’ Sylvia said. ‘What with Miss Lampeter always drugged to the world, and all the French mistresses as wicked as hell.’

‘I’ve heard you say all this before,’ Mrs. Satterthwaite said. ‘But it was supposed to be the best finishing school in England. I know it cost enough!’

‘Well, say it was we who were a rotten lot,’ Sylvia concluded; and then to the Father: ‘We were a lot of rotters, weren’t we?’

The priest answered:

‘I don’t know. I don’t suppose you were – or are – any worse than your mother or grandmother, or the patricianesses of Rome or the worshippers of Ashtaroth. It seems we have to have a governing class and governing classes are subject to special temptations.’

‘Who’s Ashtaroth?’ Sylvia asked. ‘Astarte?’ and then: ‘Now, Father, after your experiences would you say the factory girls of Liverpool, or any other slum, are any better women than us that you used to look after?’

‘Astarte Syriaca,’ the Father said, ‘was a very powerful devil. There’s some that hold she’s not dead yet. I don’t know that I do myself.’

‘Well, I’ve done with her,’ Sylvia said.

The Father nodded:

‘You’ve had dealings with Mrs. Profumo?’ he asked. ‘And that loathsome fellow.… What’s his name?’

‘Does it shock you?’ Sylvia asked. ‘I’ll admit it was a bit thick.… But I’ve done with it. I prefer to pin my faith to Mrs. Vanderdecken. And, of course, Freud.’

The priest nodded his head and said:

‘Of course! Of course.…’

But Mrs. Satterthwaite exclaimed, with sudden energy:

‘Sylvia Tietjens, I don’t care what you do or what you read, but if you ever speak another word to that woman, you never do to me!’

Sylvia stretched herself on her sofa. She opened her brown eyes wide and let the lids slowly drop again.

‘I’ve said once,’ she said, ‘that I don’t like to hear my friends miscalled. Eunice Vanderdecken is a bitterly misjudged woman. She’s a real good pal.’

‘She’s a Russian spy,’ Mrs. Satterthwaite said.

‘Russian grandmother,’ Sylvia answered. ‘And if she is, who cares? She’s welcome for me.… Listen now, you two. I said to myself when I came in: “I daresay I’ve given them both a rotten time.” I know you’re both more nuts on me than I deserve. And I said I’d sit and listen to all the pi-jaw you wanted to give me if I sat till dawn. And I will. As a return. But I’d rather you let my friends alone.’

Both the elder people were silent.