Dulcie Mainwaring is just recovering from the shock of her engagement being broken off (albeit quite a while ago) when she decides to attend a conference. She does part-time academic research and indexing, but a throw-away thought that she prefers researching live subjects proves significant.
At the conference she meets and befriends Viola Dace almost against Viola’s will. Viola’s profession is a bit murkier than Dulcie’s, and she implies that she had an affair with one of the speakers, Aylwin Forbes, the author of several scholarly articles and the lecturer on “Some problems of an editor.” (The lecture titles cracked me up. There’s another on “Some problems of indexing.”) Aylwin is thinking more about his impending divorce than his lecture and has a dizzy spell during it. (Later on, I had my doubts about Aylwin’s supposed affair and reputation, because he remembers his encounter with Viola as one kiss, whereas Viola is wondering why he hasn’t returned to her after his divorce. It’s hard to get a good idea of this, despite Aylwin clearly being susceptible.)
Dulcie’s “research” becomes more obvious as, having decided she is attracted to the handsome Aylwin, she begins visiting people and addresses associated with him. Although for some reason this seems odd but harmless in the book, today we call it stalking. Aylwin, who keeps meeting her, has a confused impression of a pleasant face but can’t remember her name.
Viola actually ends up moving into the home that Dulcie inherited from her mother, although she complains about how far it is from the action and doesn’t really seem to like Dulcie. Also moving in is Dulcie’s young niece Laurel, who would rather live in her own bed-sit, but her parents won’t let her.
As Dulcie and often Viola traipse around checking out Aylwin’s relatives and their homes and following up rumors, Dulcie meets her old fiancé Maurice, who seems to be reconsidering his decision to break it off, Viola seems to get less interested in Aylwin, and Aylwin is attracted to someone even more unsuitable than either his ex-wife or Viola.
These ordinary people seem believable with all their oddities and inconsistencies. I liked Dulcie even though she is a stalker. The other characters not so much. There’s a lot of sly humor in this book.
