"How wise you were to miss that very poor performance," she said. "But
Mr Georgie insisted that I should make a fool of myself."
"Indeed, I am sorry not to have been here for it," said Lucia in her most stately manner. "It seemed to me very far from being a poor performance, very far indeed. Caro mio, you remember Miss Bracely."
"Si, si molto bene," said Peppino, shaking hands.
"Ah, and you talk Italian," said Olga. "Che bella lingua! I wish
I knew it."
"You have a very good pronunciation," said Lucia.
"Tante grazie. You know everyone here of course. Now, what shall we do next? Clumps or charades or what? Ah, there are some cigarettes. Won't you have one?"
Lucia gave a little scream of dismay.
"A cigarette for me? That would be a very odd thing," she said. Then relenting, as she remembered that Olga must be excused for her ignorance, she added: "You see I never smoke. Never."
"Oh, you should learn," said Olga. "Now let's play clumps. Does everyone know clumps? If they don't they will find out. Or shall we dance? There's the gramophone to dance to."
Lucia put up her hands in playful petition.