H.E. Bates Companion

Two fashionable young women, ripe for a luxurious Sunday afternoon outing, find that their flamboyant hats win them attention and favors at every step. When they and their male admirers become too drunk for anything but a taxi home, the girls laugh the afternoon away, saying "Lovely to be a fool...Marvellous. Just to be all swing-high and a fool. The others miss so much...See what a good hat can do." Another story in the collection, The Fabulous Mrs V, similarly celebrates liquor, food, and sex ("A Party for the Girls"). In Woman's Journal (July 1961), The Fabulous Mrs V (1964), H.E. Bates (1975).