ever in smart travelling tweeds, and somehow she had managed to conceal the disorder of her chestnut hair under a round, flattish fur hat, which she wore over one ear at a rakish angle.
‘No need to ask if you had a good journey,’ laughed the Duke. ‘I can see you haven’t. I imagine it proved impossible to get sleepers at the last moment?’
‘You’re right there,’ Richard grunted. ‘We had to sit on the floor in the corridor most of the way, and were lucky to be able to do that. Half Vienna seemed to be wanting to get away on the trains last night.’
Marie Lou sighed. ‘We felt terribly guilty about taking places on the train at all. We shouldn’t even have been able to squeeze in if it hadn’t been for a gang of Nazi bullies who arrived on the platform about five minutes before the train was due to start. They went through every carriage and wherever they found Jews—men, women, or children—they flung them off. I shall never forget the faces of those poor people. It was probably their last chance to get out to Poland. Of course, we were allowed to travel because we are English, and those Nazi bullies couldn’t have been more polite, clicking their heels and saluting after they had examined our passports; and, as Richard said, if we hadn’t pushed into the corner from which an old Jewess hadbeen ejected, there were plenty of other Aryans behind us who would. But it was really pretty ghastly.’
‘I can imagine it,’ the Duke nodded. ‘Once war is declared, and the Nazis have to tighten their own belts, God help the Jews who are left inside the Reich! But come along! After a hot bath and a couple of cocktails you’ll both feel new people. I know the rooms you’ve been given, so I’ll take you straight up to them, then when you’re changed and rested I’ll present you to your hostess.’
Unlike the Duke, Richard was neither inquisitive nor suspicious by nature; in fact, so blind was he to everything which did not personally concern him that Marie Lou used sometimes to relate that for fun she had once walked him three times round the same London square before he woke up to the fact that they had twice passed the house to which she had asked him to accompany her. In consequence, the fact that war now appeared imminent seemed a perfectly adequate explanation for the urgent summons which had caused him to leave Vienna overnight, and it never even occurred to him that there might be anything odd about the house-party of which he had so unexpectedly become a member. He did notice vaguely at dinner that there seemed to be a somewhat undue preponderance of males, but his hostess left him little time to speculate on the reason for that.
De Richleau had warned him before dinner that, as an inducement to the Baroness to issue her invitation, he had falsely described him as an English M.P.; and now he required all his wits to avoid making a complete fool of himself as she cross-questioned him regarding the British political scene.
Both the Baroness and von Geisenheim, who was seated on her other side, knew far more about British politics than he did, yet both made the cardinal error of believing that British foreign policy was really controlled by the so-called ‘Cliveden set’, and that its members were so strongly anti-Communist that they would never allow Britain to become involved in a war against the Axis. Richard, who until then had believed that the ‘Cliveden set’ had some connection with professional bridge, heartily agreed with them as the easiest way out, and then managed to switch the conversation to personalities, for, although he took little interest in politics, he had a slight acquaintance with Lord Halifax, Lord Lloyd, Anthony Eden, Oliver Stanley, L. S. Amery, and a number of the younger Conservative members.
Marie Lou, on the other hand, was quick to perceive that no normal country house-party would have brought such a number of womanless men together, and she felt at once that
‘No need to ask if you had a good journey,’ laughed the Duke. ‘I can see you haven’t. I imagine it proved impossible to get sleepers at the last moment?’
‘You’re right there,’ Richard grunted. ‘We had to sit on the floor in the corridor most of the way, and were lucky to be able to do that. Half Vienna seemed to be wanting to get away on the trains last night.’
Marie Lou sighed. ‘We felt terribly guilty about taking places on the train at all. We shouldn’t even have been able to squeeze in if it hadn’t been for a gang of Nazi bullies who arrived on the platform about five minutes before the train was due to start. They went through every carriage and wherever they found Jews—men, women, or children—they flung them off. I shall never forget the faces of those poor people. It was probably their last chance to get out to Poland. Of course, we were allowed to travel because we are English, and those Nazi bullies couldn’t have been more polite, clicking their heels and saluting after they had examined our passports; and, as Richard said, if we hadn’t pushed into the corner from which an old Jewess hadbeen ejected, there were plenty of other Aryans behind us who would. But it was really pretty ghastly.’
‘I can imagine it,’ the Duke nodded. ‘Once war is declared, and the Nazis have to tighten their own belts, God help the Jews who are left inside the Reich! But come along! After a hot bath and a couple of cocktails you’ll both feel new people. I know the rooms you’ve been given, so I’ll take you straight up to them, then when you’re changed and rested I’ll present you to your hostess.’
Unlike the Duke, Richard was neither inquisitive nor suspicious by nature; in fact, so blind was he to everything which did not personally concern him that Marie Lou used sometimes to relate that for fun she had once walked him three times round the same London square before he woke up to the fact that they had twice passed the house to which she had asked him to accompany her. In consequence, the fact that war now appeared imminent seemed a perfectly adequate explanation for the urgent summons which had caused him to leave Vienna overnight, and it never even occurred to him that there might be anything odd about the house-party of which he had so unexpectedly become a member. He did notice vaguely at dinner that there seemed to be a somewhat undue preponderance of males, but his hostess left him little time to speculate on the reason for that.
De Richleau had warned him before dinner that, as an inducement to the Baroness to issue her invitation, he had falsely described him as an English M.P.; and now he required all his wits to avoid making a complete fool of himself as she cross-questioned him regarding the British political scene.
Both the Baroness and von Geisenheim, who was seated on her other side, knew far more about British politics than he did, yet both made the cardinal error of believing that British foreign policy was really controlled by the so-called ‘Cliveden set’, and that its members were so strongly anti-Communist that they would never allow Britain to become involved in a war against the Axis. Richard, who until then had believed that the ‘Cliveden set’ had some connection with professional bridge, heartily agreed with them as the easiest way out, and then managed to switch the conversation to personalities, for, although he took little interest in politics, he had a slight acquaintance with Lord Halifax, Lord Lloyd, Anthony Eden, Oliver Stanley, L. S. Amery, and a number of the younger Conservative members.
Marie Lou, on the other hand, was quick to perceive that no normal country house-party would have brought such a number of womanless men together, and she felt at once that
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