were jewels, an armoury of pearls and diamonds and gold that hung and wobbled and glistened to detract the eye from the lost battle with time.
'Oh, Mr Piper, I just want to say how much pleasure...'
'I can't tell you how much it means to me to...'
'I think it's fascinating to meet a real...'
'If you would just sign my copy...'
'You've done so much to bring people together...'
With Baby on his arm Piper was swallowed up in the adulating crowd.
'Boy, he's really going over big,' said Hutchmeyer, 'and this is Maine. What's he going to do to the cities?'
'I hate to think,' said Sonia watching anxiously as Piper's turban bobbed among the hairdos.
'Wow them. Zap them. We'll sell two million copies if this is anything to indicate. I got a computer forecast after the welcome he got in New York and '
'Welcome? You call that riot a welcome?' said Sonia bitterly. 'You could have got us killed.'
'Great copy,' said Hutchmeyer, 'I'm going to give MacMordie a bonus. That boy's got talent. And while we're on the subject let me say I've got a proposition to make to you.'
'I've heard your propositions, Hutch, and the answer is still no.'
'Sure but this is different.' He steered Sonia over to the bar.
By the time he had signed fifty copies of Pause O Men for the Virgin and drunk, unthinkingly, four Martinis, Piper's earlier apprehensions had entirely vanished. The enthusiasm with which he was being greeted had the merit that it didn't require him to say anything. He was bombarded from all sides by compliments and opinions. They seemed to come in two sizes. The thin women were intense, the ones with obesity problems cooed. No one expected Piper to contribute more than the favour of his smile. Only one woman broached the subject of his novel and Baby immediately intervened.
'Knock you up, Chloe?' she said. 'Now why should Mr Piper want to do that? He's got a very tight schedule to meet.'
'So not everyone's had the benefit of a pussy lift,' said Chloe with a hideous wink at Piper. 'Now the way I read it Mr Piper's book is about going into the natural in a big way...'
But Baby dragged Piper away before he could hear what Chloe had to say about going into the natural in a big way.
'What's a pussy lift?' he asked.
'That Chloe's just a cat,' said Baby, leaving Piper under the happy illusion that pussy lifts were things cats went up and down in. By the time the party broke up Piper was exhausted.
'I've put you in the Boudoir bedroom,' said Baby as she and Sonia escorted him up the Renaissance staircase. 'It's got a wonderful view of the bay.'
Piper went into the Boudoir bedroom and looked around. Originally designed to combine convenience with medieval simplicity, it had been refurbished by Baby with an eye to the supposedly sensual. A heart-shaped bed stood on a carpet of intermingled rainbows which competed for radiance with a furbelowed stool and an Art Deco dressing-table. To complete the ensemble a large and evidently demented Spanish gypsy supported a tasselled lampshade on a bedside table while a black glass chest of drawers gleamed darkly against the Wedgwood blue walls. Piper sat down on the bed and looked up at the great timber rafters. There was a solid craftsmanship about them that contrasted with the ephemeral brilliance of the furnishings. He undressed and brushed his teeth and climbed into bed. Five minutes later he was asleep.
An hour later he was wide awake again. There were voices coming through the wall behind his quilted bedhead. For a moment Piper wondered where on earth he was. The voices soon told him. The Hutchmeyers' bedroom was evidently next to his and their bathroom had a connecting door. During
