A night out, and the hours that follow it

Before the curtain, or after it

Two different evenings. The early version eats at six, watches the thing and takes supper somewhere still open at half past ten, which is tight and wants the times stated exactly in the message. The later version skips the rush, meets at nine and gives the whole booking to the part of the night most people are too tired for by then.

Say which you want and give the curtain time if there is one. She will keep an eye on it so that you do not have to, and she is the one who knows which door of the hall comes out where.

Doors, and being let through them

If you are going somewhere with a door policy, mention it when you write. Several of the women here know the rooms and the staff, which is useful, and all of them dress to the room rather than to the photograph of it. What no companion will do is talk her way past anybody or put her own name down for anything, and a guest who needs that arranged should arrange it himself.

The walk back

Half the guests who book this commission say afterwards that the best part was the last twenty minutes of it, on foot, with the shops shut and the streets empty. Sloane Street at half past ten is lit and grand and takes four minutes end to end. St James's at eleven is almost entirely empty with the club windows still on. Neither is a thing anyone plans and both are the reason people book it again.

Four who are good after nine

Lucy will find the programme, tell you honestly whether the second half is worth staying for and choose the right seats rather than the dearest. Laura stays for the music, walks part of the way back and is politely pretending not to be faster than you. Tina takes the counter, argues cheerfully and walks the length of Mount Street before anyone mentions a taxi. Jasmin keeps late hours by preference and will find the one bar still serving. Two of them are on the toned and athletic drawer.

A concert night, hour by hour

Seven at your hotel, for a drink that has to be brief. The hall at half past, seats found and the programme read. The interval, which she uses to tell you what is coming. Out by twenty past nine or ten, depending on the piece, then supper somewhere still serving and the walk back. Three hours covers this exactly when everything is close together; four is the safer figure if the hall is across the river from where you are staying.

Marylebone belongs on this page as well. The recital hall on Wigmore Street starts at half past seven and is out before nine, which leaves the rest of a three hour booking for supper and very little for the clock.

If the night changes

Performances are cancelled and bars close early. If the thing you were going to see falls through, the booking stands as hours of company and the two of you find something else to do with them; she usually has a suggestion. If you would rather move the evening instead, three hours' notice or more costs nothing, and inside the last two hours before she is due half the figure stands.

Arranging it

Concert and theatre evenings want three or four days, because the halls sell ahead and the good nights go quietly. A late table and a bar can usually be done the same day. Give the date, the hours, the venue and where you are staying; the reply names the woman, the minute and the figure. Her fee reaches her as she arrives, and extra hours, if the night runs on, are agreed at the ladder rate before they start rather than after.