28 MARCH 1987, Page 34

The Waistcoat

I had a waistcoat just like that long ago: white piqué with tiny pearl buttons all down the front.

At that time, Mr Poyntz of the Export Department was in love with me. One evening we went to see Scheherezade, which inflamed and excited him — after the moderate fashion of the day; but I was safe in his hands behind the serried rank of recalcitrant, refractory pearl after pearl after pearl.

Connie Bensley