has an unreasoning terror, naming it "The Beast", as it promotes a hatred of music in his soul. Aunt Nina's marriage breaks up and Walter wants her and her young daughter Josephine (Joe) to live with them, but Myra objects. Fate takes a turn though when the Boer War breaks out and Walter goes off to fight. In his absence, whilst Vernon is away at school, Nina dies and Myra takes Joe in. As a result, Vernon has a playmate in the holidays and the two start to make a circle of acquaintances. One of them, Nell Vereker, is a thin girl who cannot keep up with Vernon and Joe in their games. The local village is aghast when the property adjoining Abbots Puisannts is bought by a rich Jewish family called the Levinnes and, although held at arm's length at first, gradually the family come to be held in a grudging acceptance. Vernon and Joe also make friends with the son of the family – Sebastian, who is about the same age as them. A few weeks before the end of the war, Walter Deyre is killed in action and Vernon inherits Abbots Puisannts, though as he is not of age so it is held in trust for him. A shortage of money means that Myra and her son have to move, and they rent the house out while they move to Birmingham to be near Uncle Sydney. Eleven years pass. Vernon and Sebastian have remained friends through their time at Eton and Cambridge. Sebastian's father has died in the intervening years and he, unlike Vernon, has inherited millions. Sebastian is starting on his career as a patron of the arts, opening a gallery in Bond Street, while Joe has artistic tastes and Vernon is at a loose end as to what he wants to do – money, or the lack of it, still being a concern. He has a life-changing moment when he is forced to attend a charity concert at the Albert Hall and suddenly overcomes his childhood hatred of music, so much so that he declares that he wants to be a composer. Vernon reaches twenty-one and is bitter to learn that his financial situation means that he cannot afford to move back to Abbots Puisannts. He is forced to agree that he will work at Uncle Sydney's firm, but life takes a different tack when,