“I should be glad if you would not refer to her as ‘this girl.’ The name, if you have forgotten it, is Mariner.”
“Well, where did you meet Miss Mariner?”
“At Prince’s.”
“Restaurant?”
“Skating-rink,” said Derek impatiently. “Just after you left for Mentone. Freddie Rooke introduced me.”
“Oh, your intellectual friend Mr Rooke knows her?”
“They were children together. Her people lived next to the Rookes in Worcestershire.”
“I thought you said she was an American.”
“I said her father was. He settled in England. Jill hasn’t been in America since she was eight or nine.”
“The fact,” said Lady Underhill, “that the girl is a friend of Mr Rooke is no great recommendation.”