Nancy Mitford's 1949 novel. Set during the same period as "The Pursuit of Love" (but isn't as sparkling), and enlarges more on the activities of the narrator, Frances, and her cousins (Linda's siblings). The main characters are Polly (whom her upper-class parents had ambitions of marrying off to the Prince of Wales, before Mrs Simpson came along), her lecherous old uncle (who becomes her husband), and Cedric, (a fey colonial sprig of the family), whose appearance on the scene acts a catalyst.

she never told of her love
a bead of mercury
reflecting prisms of light caught in his eyes
constant even in its fragments.
and in the space of time between
his eye lash meeting another lash
she felt a howling cold wind
whip through her heart.

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