With the Fair no more than a fortnight away, it was an event for which the whole of the Venetian glass industry had `before' and `after' plans. This piece of business must be handled before it; that could safely be left until after. It was an attitude which filtered through to the social scene, with the Gala and the Fair high points of agreeable entertainment beyond which engagement diaries need not look. But for Ariel they were a kind of watershed between her present nagging doubts and speculations and the possible ugly certainties to be faced afterwards. The nervous strain of alternate hope and dread robbed her of both sleep and appetite, and one evening, going to join Amy and Robinson at dinner, from the doorway the room seemed to spin before her eyes, and she slid down the doorpost in
