Absolutley Pointless Blurb for Optimisational Reasons
She had chosen to begin it at the extraordinary time of a quarter to four in the afternoon; and this certainly meant twelve hours' entertainment. But Claribel always said she liked too much of everything. Her guests came. They came in time. They would not have done this for anybody but her. But they came to her dark house at the very time she told them to, because they knew that she had something to offer them, something surprising, delicious, worth while. When they had received her casual invitation, by telephone, by note or word of mouth or even by wire, each one of them knew that this was the summons that must be accepted at all costs, for New Year's Eve. If any of them had made a previous arrangement, this must be cancelled. And yet, there were some of them who didn't want to go ... Perhaps these had been before, had seen other New Years in at ClaribePs parties. Perhaps one or two of them had done this more than once, and knew that, so long as Qaribel chose, in her casual last-minute way, to invite them, they would do it again. Oh yes, there were always a few ' old friends' in these annual gatherings. The question they asked themselves, as they came into her dimly lighted room, was, who of their number was not there this time ?