As she always did on any really important day, Penelope Hayes wore red.

Oh yes, well, I find myself unconventional everywhere.

Diana knew it wouldn't be right, but then she told herself that things only looked wrong when there was someone to see you.

That was how the heroine of a book would play it and Diana was still writing her own story the best heroines she'd always believed took their fate into their own hands.

The world is such a marvel - it gave you trials, but if you were still and concentrated, if you tried to do the right thing, it always provided you with salvation.

A young lady's most natural ally is her sister although sometimes our own relatives are as inscrutable to us as an antipodean.

Things only looked wrong when there was someone to see you.