s in families, and
Mr. Wyse's, you know--We're lucky, you and I."

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

"Peace 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 opposite, was
reminded of the iridescent hues observable on cold boiled beef. But
then, Miss Mapp had registered the fact that Diva's notion of singing
alto was to follow the trebles at the uniform distance of a minor third
below, so that matters were about square between them. She wondered
between the verses if she could say something very tactful to Diva,
which might before next Christmas induce her not to make that noise....

Major Flint came in just before the first hymn was over, and held his
top-hat before his face by way of praying in secret, before he opened
his hymn-book. A piece of loose holly fell down from the window ledge
above him on the exact middle of his head, and the jump that he gave
was, considering his baldness, quite justifiable. Captain Puffin, Miss
Mapp was sorry to see, was not there at all. But he had been unwell
lately with attacks of dizziness, one of which had caused him, in the
last game of golf that he had played, to fall down on the eleventh green
and groan. If these attacks were not due to his lack