'Quite true. It happened in my husband's family, thirty years ago. They are not very proud of it. You can dress it up somehow with new names.'
'Quite so. I shall rewrite the whole.'
'I don't mind. It is a great pleasure to me to see the stories in print. And no one suspects poor little Me. Are they so very badly written?'
'The style is a little—just a little, may I say?—jerky. But the stories are admirable. Do let me have some more, Lady Frances.'
'Remember. No one is to know where you get them.'
'A Masonic secrecy forms part of my character. I even put my own name to them for greater security.'
He did. Every week he put his own name to stories which he got from people like this Lady of Quality.
'That ought to disarm suspicion. On the other hand, everybody must know that you cannot invent these things.'
Alec laughed. 'Most people give me credit for inventing even your stories.'
'By the way,' she said, 'are you coming to my dinner next week?'