No. Everything had been served to Beau on a plate. It was miraculous that she had turned out so charming.
"Did you see me make a fool of myself on the boom?" Innes asked, in a pleasant conversational tone. This surprised Lucy, somehow; she had expected Innes to avoid the subject.
"My dear, we sweated for you," Mrs Nash said. "What happened? Did you turn dizzy?"
"No," said Beau, coming up behind them and slipping an arm into Innes's, "that is just Innes's way of stealing publicity. It is not inferior physical powers, but superior brains the girl has. None of us has the wit to think up a stunt like that."
Beau gave the arm she was holding a small reassuring squeeze. She too was in boy's clothes, and looked radiant; even the quenching of her bright hair had not diminished the glow and vivacity of her beauty.
"That is the last of the Junior's efforts-don't they look gay against that green background? — and now Innes and I and the rest of our put-upon set will entertain you with some English antics, and then you shall have tea to sustain you against the real dancing to come."
And they went away together.
"Ah, well," said Mrs Nash, watching her daughter go, "I suppose it is better than being seized with a desire to reform natives in Darkest Africa or something. But I wish she would have just stayed at home and been one's daughter."
Lucy thought that it was to Mrs Nash's credit that, looking as young as she did, she wanted a daughter at home.
"Pam was always mad on gym. and games," Mr Nash said. "There was no holding her. There never was any holding her, come to that."