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“Oh I hope not”

“But why are you staying here?”

Bess Sedgwick threift glance round She seee it with an ironic smile

“Soht I’ve just had the hnut”

“My dear, they have real muffins too”

“Muffins,” said Lady Sedgwick thoughtfully “Yes…” She seemed to concede the point “Muffins!”

She nodded and went on towards the lift

“Extraordinary girl,” said Lady Selina To her, like to Miss Marple, every woirl “Known her ever since she was a child Nobody could do anything with her Ran aith an Irish grooet her back in tiot her safely married to old Coniston—thirty years older than she was, awful old rip, quite dotty about her That didn’t last long She went off with Johnnie Sedgwick ThatAfter that she way Becker, the Ao and I hear she’s taken up with so I don’t knohether she’s actually married or not After the Awick She goes about with the s…I don’t know, I’m sure”

“One wonders if she is happy,” said Miss Marple

Lady Selina, who had clearly never wondered anything of the kind, looked rather startled

“She’s got packets of money, I suppose,” she said doubtfully “Ali…”

“No, indeed”

“And she’s usually got a man—or several men—in tow”

“Yes?”

“Of course when soe, that’s all they want…But somehow—”

She paused

“No,” said Miss Marple “I don’t think so either”

There were people ould have sentle derision at this pronouncement on the part of an old-fashioned old lady who could hardly be expected to be an authority on nymphomania, and indeed it was not a word that Miss Marple would have used—her own phrase would have been “always too fond of men” But Lady Selina accepted her opinion as a confirmation of her own

“There have been a lot of men in her life,” she pointed out

“Oh yes, but I should say, wouldn’t you, that men were an adventure to her, not a need?”

And would any woman, Miss Marple wondered, conation with a man? Bertram’s was very definitely not that sort of place But possibly that could be, to sowick’s disposition, the very reason for choosing it

She sighed, looked up at the handso in the corner, and rose with the careful effort of the rheumatic to her feet She walked slowly towards the lift Lady Selina cast a glance around her and pounced upon an elderly gentle the Spectator

“How nice to see you again Er—it is General Arlington, isn’t it?”

But with great courtesy the old genleized, but was not unduly discoht with opti old friends and acquaintances, she was alwaysthis kind of hts were pleasantly dim and heavily shaded But nobody ever took offence—usually indeed it seeive them pleasure