Her interactive door at end of moving rooms

'Well, well, well,' Mr Malseed said, now entering the hall through the door that leads to the kitchen. In winter, when no one much comes to Glencorn Lodge, she sees to little details like that her husband sees to redecoration and repairs. Mrs Malseed herself painted flowers on the doors of the hotel instead of putting numbers. 'Rose, Tulip, Lily and Geranium.' She referred to the names of the rooms reserved for us. 'Arthur, take the luggage up,' she commanded the old porter. Some instinct seems to teU her when guests are about to arrive, for she's rarely not waiting in the large, low-ceilinged hall that always smells of flowers. 'How very nice,' Mrs Malseed said, smiling her welcome again this year. We're all about the same age and live quite close to the town where the Malseeds were before they decided to make the change from England to Ireland. He and Strafe were at school together, which must be why we call Strafe by his surname as the teachers used to. Dekko picked up his nickname at school, Dekko Deacon sounding rather good, I suppose.

They call me Milly, though strictly speaking my name is Dorothy Milson. The four of us have been playing cards together for ages, Dekko, Strafe, Cynthia and myself. We had gone away together the summer before, to a hotel that had been recommended by friends, but it hadn't been a success because the food was so appalling. 'How about this?' he said one evening and read out the details. He'd come across an advertisement in the days when the Malseeds still felt the need to advertise. The English couple who bought the house, the Malseeds, have had to add to the buUding, but everything has been done most discreetly. It's a large house by the sea, not far from the village of Ardbeag. Ever since the four of us began to go on holidays together we had spent the first fortnight of the month at Glencorn Lodge in County Antrim.

Her interactive door at end of moving rooms