'See you closer,' corrected a quiet voice from the back of the cab.

'I'll go downstairs,' said Margo to me, 'and get them inside and keep them quiet. You go and wake Larry.'

I pulled on a pair of shorts, picked up Ulysses unceremoniously (who, with half-closed eyes, was digesting his food), and went to the window and threw him out.

'Extraordinary!' said the tall man, watching Ulysses fly away over the moon-silvered olive tops. 'Dis like the house of Dracula, no, Donald?'

'By Jove, yes,' said Donald.

I pattered down the corridor and burst into Larry's room. It took me some time to shake him awake, for, under the firm impression that Mother had been breathing her cold germs over him, he had taken the precaution of consuming half a bottle of whisky before he went to bed. Eventually he sat up blearily and looked at me.

'What the bloody hell do you want?' he inquired.

I explained about the two characters in the cab and that they had said they had been invited to drinks.

'Oh, Christ!' said Larry. 'Just tell them I've gone to Dubrovnik.'

I explained that I could not very well do this as by now Margo would have lured them into the house and that Mother, in her fragile condition, must not be disturbed. Groaning, Larry got out of bed and put on his dressing-gown and slippers and together we went down the creaking stairs to the drawing-room. Here we found Max, lanky, flamboyant, good-natured, sprawled in a chair waving his candelabra at Margo, all the candles of which had gone out. Donald sat hunched and gloomy in another chair, looking like an undertaker's assistant.

'Your eyes, they are tender blue,' said Max, waving a long finger at Margo. 'Ve vas singing about blue eyes, vere ve not, Donald?'

'We were singing about blue eyes,' said Donald.

'Dat's what I said,' said Max benevolently.

'You said "was,"' said Donald.

Max thought about this for a brief moment.

'Anyvay,' he said, 'de eyes vas blue.'

'Were blue,' said Donald.

'Oh, there you are,' said Margo, breathlessly, as Larry and I came in. 'I think these are friends of yours, Larry.'

'Larry!' bellowed Max, lurching up with the ungainly grace of a giraffe. 'Ve have come like you told us.'

'How very nice,' said Larry, forcing his sleep-crumpled features into something approaching an ingratiating smile. 'Do you mind keeping your voice down, because my mother's sick?'

'Muzzers,' said Max, with immense conviction, 'are de most important thing in de vorld.'

He turned to Donald, laid a long finger across his moustache, and said 'Shush' with such violence that Roger, who had sunk into a peaceful sleep, immediately leaped to his feet and started barking wildly. Widdle and Puke joined in vociferously.

'Damned bad form that,' observed Donald between the barks. 'Guest should not make his host's dogs bark.'

Max went down on his knees and engulfed the still barking Roger in his long arms, a manoeuvre that I viewed with some alarm, since Roger, I felt, was quite capable of misinterpreting it.

'Hush, Bow Wow,' said Max, beaming into Roger's bristling and belligerent face.

To my astonishment, Roger immediately stopped barking and started to lick Max's face extravagantly.

'Would you... er... like a drink?' said Larry. 'I can't ask you to stop long, of course, because unfortunately my mother's ill.'

'Very civil of you,' said Donald. 'Very civil indeed. I must apologize for him. Foreigner, you know.'

'Well, I think I'll just go back to bed,' said Margo, edging tentatively towards the door.

'No, you won't,' Larry barked. 'Somebody's got to pour out the drinks.'

'Do not,' said Max, reclining on the floor with Roger in his arms and gazing at her piteously, 'do not remove doze eyes from my orbit.'

'Well, I'll go and get the drinks, then,' said Margo breathlessly.

'And I vill help you,' said Max, casting Roger from him and leaping to his feet.

Roger had been under the misguided impression that Max had intended to spend the rest of the night cuddling him in front of the dying fire, and so was not unnaturally put out when he was thrown aside like this. He started barking again.

The door of the drawing-room burst open and Leslie, stark naked except for a shot-gun under his arm, made his appearance.

'What the bloody hell's going on?' he asked.

'Leslie, do go and put some clothes on,' said Margo. 'These are friends of Larry's.'

'Oh, God,' said Leslie dismally, 'not more.'

He turned and made his way back upstairs.

'Drinks!' said Max, rapturously seizing Margo in his arms and waltzing her round to the accompaniment of almost hysterical barks on the part of Roger.

'I do wish you would try to be more quiet,' said Larry. 'Max, for Christ's sake.'

'Damned bad form,' said Donald.

'Remember my mother,' said Larry, since this reference had obviously struck a chord in Max's soul.

Immediately he ceased waltzing with the breathless Margo and came to a halt.

'Vere is your Muzzer?' he inquired. 'De lady is sick... take me to her dat I may secure her.'

'Succour,' said Donald.

'I'm here,' said Mother in a slightly nasal tone of voice from the doorway. 'What is going on?'

She was clad in her nightie and wearing, for reasons of her cold, a voluminous shawl over her shoulders. She carried under one arm the drooping, panting, apathetic figure of Dodo, her Dandie Dinmont terrier.

'Why, you're just in time, Mother,' said Larry. 'I want you to meet Donald and Max.'

With the first sign of animation that he had shown, Donald rose to his feet, marched swiftly across the room to Mother, seized her hand, and gave a slight bow over it.

'Enchanted,' he said. 'Terribly sorry about the disturbance. My friend, you know. Continental.'

'How nice to see you,' said Mother, summoning up all her resources.

At her entrance, Max had thrown his arms wide and was now gazing upon her with all the devoutness of a Crusader catching his first sight of Jerusalem.

'Muzzer!' he intoned dramatically. 'You are de Muzzer!'

'How do you do,' said Mother uncertainly.

'You are,' Max asked, getting his facts straight, 'de sick Muzzer?'

'Oh, it's just a bit of a cold,' said Mother deprecatingly.

'Ve have voked you,' said Max, clasping his breast, his eyes brimming with tears.

'Awoken or woken,' said Donald sotto voce.

'Come,' said Max and put his long arms round Mother and ushered her to a chair near the fire, pressing her into it with the utmost delicacy. He took off his coat and spread it gently about her knees. Then he squatted by her side, took her hand and peered earnestly into her face.

'Vhat,' he inquired, 'does Muzzer vant?'

'An uninterrupted night's sleep,' said Leslie, who had just returned, more conventionally garbed in a pair of pyjama trousers and sandals.

'Max,' said Donald sternly, 'stop monopolizing the conversation. Remember what we have come for.'

'Of course,' said Max delightedly. 'Ve have vunderful news, Larry. Donald has decided to become an author.'

'Had to,' murmured Donald modestly. 'Seeing all you chaps living in the lap of luxury. Royalties pouring in. Felt I must try my hand at it.'

'That's jolly good,' said Larry, with a certain lack of enthusiasm.

'I've just completed the first chapter,' said Donald, 'and so we came out hot-foot, as it were, so that I could read it to you.'

'Oh, God,' said Larry, horrified. 'No, Donald, really. My critical faculties are completely dehydrated at half past two in the morning. Can't you leave it here and I'll read it tomorrow?'

'It's short,' said Donald, taking no notice of Larry and producing a small sheet of paper from his pocket, 'but I think you will find the style interesting.'

Larry gave an exasperated sigh, and we all sat back and listened expectantly while Donald cleared his throat.

'Suddenly,' he began in a deep vibrant voice, 'suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, there he was and then suddenly, there she was, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly. And suddenly he looked at her, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, and she suddenly looked at him, suddenly. She suddenly opened her arms, suddenly, suddenly, and he opened his arms, suddenly. Then suddenly they came together and, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, he could feel the warmth of her body and suddenly, suddenly she could feel the warmth of his mouth on hers as they suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly fell on the couch together.'

There was a long pause while we waited for Donald to go on. He gulped once or twice as though overcome with emotion at his own writing, folded the piece of paper carefully and put it back in his pocket.

'What do you think?' he inquired of Larry.

'Well, it's a bit short,' said Larry cautiously.

'Ah, but what do you think of the style?' said Donald.

'Well, it's, um, interesting,' said Larry. 'I think you'll find it's been done before, though.'

'Couldn't have been,' explained Donald. 'You see, I only thought of it tonight.'

'I don't think he ought to have any more to drink,' said Leslie loudly.

'Hush, dear,' said Mother. 'What do you intend to call it, Donald?'

'I thought,' said Donald owlishly, 'I thought I would call it The Suddenly Book.'

'A very trenchant title,' said Larry. 'I feel, however, that your main characters could be padded out a little bit, in depth, as it were, before you get them all tangled up on the sofa.'

'Yes,' said Donald. 'You could well be right.'

'Well, that is interesting,' said Mother, sneezing violently. 'And now I think we really all ought to have a cup of tea.'

'I vill make de tea for you, Muzzer,' said Max, leaping to his feet and starting all the dogs barking again.

'I will help you,' said Donald.

'Margo, dear, you had better go with them and just make sure they find everything,' said Mother.

When the three of them had left the room, Mother looked at Larry.

'And these are the people,' she said coldly, 'you say are not eccentric.'

'Well, Donald's not eccentric,' said Larry. 'He's just a bit high.'

'And suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly he was drunk,' intoned Leslie, putting some more logs on the fire and kicking it into some semblance of a blaze.

'They are both of them very good chaps,' said Larry. 'Donald's already laid half of Corfu by its ears.'

'What do you mean?' said Mother.

'Well, you know how the Corfiotes love to worm every hidden secret out of you,' said Larry. 'They're all convinced that since he appears to have private means and is so incredibly British that he must have a terribly posh background. So he has been amusing himself by telling them all different stories. He has so far, I have been assured, been the elder son of a duke, the cousin of the Bishop of London, and the illegitimate son of Lord Chesterfield. He has been educated at Eton, Harrow, Oxford, Cambridge, and, to my delight, this morning Mrs Papanopoulos assured me that he had assured her that his formal education had been undertaken at Girton.'

Just at that moment Margo came back into the drawing-room, looking slightly distraught.

'I think you had better come and do something with them, Larry,' she said. 'Max has just lighted the kitchen fire with a five-pound note and Donald has disappeared and keeps shouting "Cooee" at us and we can't see where he's gone.'

All of us trooped down to the gigantic stone-flagged kitchen where a kettle was starting to sing on one of the charcoal fires and Max was contemplating, woefully, the charred remains of a five-pound note which he held in one hand.

'Really, Max,' said Mother, 'what a silly thing to do.'

Max beamed at her.

'No expense spared for Muzzer,' he said, and then, pressing the remains of the fiver into her hand, 'Keep it, Muzzer, as a souvenir.'

'Cooee,' came a doleful, echoing cry.