As a faint extenuation of Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce’s character it should be mentioned that she had had a very tricky upbringing. In addition to being a Colonel’s Wife she was a Colonel’s Daughter. Moreover both Colonels had been foolish, and both had been in the Indian army.

She was, in point of fact, now a Colonel’s Widow. Her husband, to whom she had been married only five years, had died shortly after the First World War. Her father and mother were also dead.

She was now forty-one, and, although rather plump, she looked frequently much younger. She was not totally unattractive. Indeed, by a businessman fresh from a Masonic Dinner, she was often thought ravishing.

She had tow-coloured hair, nice blue eyes, and a lascivious mouth. Her good teeth were slightly rabbit. The mouth and the teeth assisted her in, and accentuated, her mode of speech.

In 1928 she was living in a small house in Reading. One does not think of Colonels’ Wives (or Widows) as living in Reading: there is hardly any more unlikely or unsuitable town.

She lived there, however, because she had little money, and because her deceased and only sister had bequeathed her a small house there. She called this house a pied-à-terre.