A note on names -- Monetary values -- The cast in September 1939 -- Introduction: An evening in Bedford Square -- The wanton chase -- 'The little girl who makes everyone's heart beat faster' -- When the going was good: Lys, Connolly and Horizon 1939-45 -- Interlude: mapping the forties scene -- 'Skeltie darling...' -- Interlude: Glur -- Struggling to go beyond herself: Sonia 1918-45 -- Interlude: Angela -- Blinding impulsions: Janetta 1940-5 -- Interlude: Anna -- Cairo nights: Barbara 1943-4 -- Interlude: Joan -- Ways and means: lost girl style -- Interlude: on not being boring -- Sussex Place: Connolly, Lys, Janetta and others 1945-9 -- Interlude: Office life -- The man in the hospital bed: Sonia 1945-50 -- Interlude: Sonia's things -- The destructive element: Barbara, Connolly and others 1944-51 -- Interlude: parents and daughters -- The invisible worm: Cyril and the women -- Projections: the lost girls in fiction -- Interlude: Barbara's style -- Afterwards -- Finale: the last lost girl.