"You should see Pill's boy friend," she shouted, "you should just see him!"
"That child? We saw him," Esmée said in a disinterested voice.
"Out the window the day the hols began? Don't be a dreep, Es. He's no child. You're just jealous. Pill brought him to the chalet for lunch and he's dreamy, positively dreamy, isn't he Sal?"
Sally grinned and nodded. "He really is. I never thought Pill had it in her. She must have a whopper of a line after all."
"All I can say is hurrah for Flip," Maggie Campbell said. "I'd hate to see Esmée get her claws into someone as nice as that."
Esmée turned angrily towards the laughing Maggie but Jackie broke in, "I went to six plays and two operas. What did you do, Esmée?"
Esmée announced languidly, still with a baleful eye on Maggie, that she had gone out dancing every night and worn a strapless evening gown.
"Strapless evening gown my foot," Jackie whispered inelegantly to Flip. "She'd look gruesome in a strapless evening gown."
Solvei had spent the holidays skiing with her parents. "I bet I could teach you to ski, Flip," she said.
Oh, horrors, Flip thought. What shall I do if she really wants to try?