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Rh Diva maintained a complete silence, and they had now come nearly as far as her door. If she would not give the information that she knew Miss Mapp longed for, she must be asked for it, with the uncertain hope that she would give it then.

“Been playing bridge lately, dear?” asked Miss Mapp.

“Quite lately,” said Diva.

“I thought I heard you say something about it to the Contessa. Yesterday, was it? Whom did you play with?”

Diva paused, and, when they had come quite to her door, made up her mind.

“Contessa, Susan, Mr. Wyse, me,” she said.

“But I thought she never played with Mr. Wyse,” said Miss Mapp.

“Had to get a four,” said Diva. “Contessa wanted her bridge. Nobody else.”

She popped into her house.

There is no use in describing Miss Mapp’s state of mind, except by saying that for the moment she quite forgot that the Contessa was almost certainly going to tea with Major Benjy to-morrow.

CHAPTER XII EACE on earth and mercy mild,” sang Miss Mapp, holding her head back with her uvula clearly visible. She sat in her usual seat close below the pulpit, and the sun streaming in through a stained glass window opposite made her face of all colours, like Joseph’s coat. Not knowing how it looked from outside, she pictured to herself a sort of celestial radiance coming from within, though Diva, sitting 