THE BARON PRESENTS HIS FRIENDSIt was past two by the time Melissa got back from Nice. The hall porter said her father had returned and had asked for her. Upstairs, outside their suite, there was a coming and going of waiters with service trolleys, the loud murmur of voices from the salon. She made a little face. There was company for luncheon, men by the sound of it. She slipped into her bedroom next door to wash off the dust of the Corniche road and put on some powder.
She was at her dressing-table, making up her lips, when in the mirror she saw Stephen, napkin in hand, at the door communicating with the sitting-room. "Hullo, big boy," she said. "Had a good trip? How's Paris?" Through the half open door behind him the noise of voices, the clatter of knives and forks, was loud.
He came o
