It was one of those house parties<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That only the English might hold<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the lawns of an ancient manor house <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our hostess was a woman named Shell Dove <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody knew her real name <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although she was rumoured to be Jewish <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her features were those <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of a woman of the Mediterranean<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps French Spanish or Italian<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet her accent was cut glass <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A favorite story of hers <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was rather gruesome <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That of a car accident <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That occurred near the lodge <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing ever happens <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the Lansdowne Road <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is such a quiet place <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But just over ten years ago <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was the most terrible accident <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two cars collided and one burst into flames <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three people in one of the cars<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Were horribly injured <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strange thing was that they were all queers <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not known in the district<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They had no reason to be passing our gates <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the mess was sorted out <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was found that one of the queers <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was wearing a splendid ball gown <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or the remains of a splendid ball gown\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was in Persia at the time <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I missed all the fun and games <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The occupants of the other car <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Were uninjured apart from cuts and bruises <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freddie <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freddie <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vicar of St Marks<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wickedly said to me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That this was the Will of God <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people disliked Shell Dove <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But were discreet about their feelings <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I actually liked her without thought<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As she was fun to be with <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was never a dull moment <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was an exotic creature <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whose mystery intrigued<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All those who came<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within her bright circle
G.M.Arlen <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was one of those house parties That only the English might hold On the lawns of an ancient manor house Our hostess was a woman named Shell Dove Nobody knew her real name Although she was rumoured to be Jewish Her features were those Of a woman of the Mediterranean Perhaps French Spanish or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20424"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20433,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20424\/revisions\/20433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}