Ava Waverley
married Peter Ponsonby
for the mordauncy of his tongue
for the excellence of his tennis;
The alternative view
drifting into disenchantment
said the little bitch just did it
to arouse every hackle in sight.
Von Brickendrop, ex-champagne
salesman, now German ambassador,
appeared, and so did Lady Astor
with the well-heeled Cliveden Set;
There were two telegrams
from Wales and Wallis at Fort Belvedere,
one from Mussolini, not a peep from WSC
on the Cote d’Azur with Maxine Eliot.
Betty Cranbourne, later Lady Salisbury,
when writing a letter to someone
remarked that plays had left the stage,
the spotlight now shone down on Us;
Colin, who was in Cambridge at the time,
a friend of Burgess and MacLean,
took me aside, he said quite sensibly
it’s all drama, nothing to worry about.
