[MaC] A pause in the music - Back in the lounge

[Ree Moorhead Pruehs]

At 09:32 AM 12/26/2004, you wrote:
>>"Don't mind him old boy."  James said to Anton, not even deigning to give 
>>Fitzroy a look.  James sighed, smashed a fist into his palm and mused 
>>aloud.  "Everyone in the building was invited to the party, weren't 
>>they?" he said. "Every last one, social hermit or not."
>>"It's one of us." James deduced, unhappily.
>
>>"No! No, it can't be!" Nicola protested. "There had
>>to..." her voice trailed off. "Oh... you're right.
>>Nobody could get into Mortmain Mansions and we were
>>all here at the party." She looked around the room at
>>the few stragglers that had been either too uneasy or
>>too respectful to traipse through and gawk at Nola's
>>body. "But... who?" She shivered in spite of her warm jacket.
>
>         Pamela's lips thinned. She had come to the same conclusion, but 
> need Mr. Drake frighten everyone with it? No point suggesting that 
> perhaps someone *had* broken in, given that all the flats were empty 
> tonight; that would not precisely reassure.
>
>         The thing to do was to remain calm and matter-of-fact. Pamela 
> patted Nicola's hand one more time and turned toward Lucinda. "Mrs. 
> Skeffington-Nottle? Your husband was asking for you; perhaps you would 
> come with me? Oh, and Mr. Hodges, we could do with whatever aprons -- or 
> table-linen, even -- you could find for us. Anything at all; it needn't 
> be new or even clean." Properly she ought to have asked Mr. Fitzroy, as 
> the flat they were in was his, but hundreds of years of breeding firmly 
> informed her that she simply could not speak to that common, vulgar, 
> *nasty* little man.

Vangie cleared her throat. "I think perhaps our hostess should be told what 
is happening." Diffidently she added, "...and she was asking for her purse 
earlier, I can take care of that at the same time."