Petite companions, sorted by the tempo each one sets

Jasmin, 160 cm, with long, straight chestnut hair, dances salsa every week, studies perfume seriously and likes a night that gathers speed as it goes. She will want two cocktails made differently and a verdict from you on both.

Tina, 158 cm, the smallest companion on the roster and among the most self-assured, is athletic and espresso-haired and never without a pencil for sketching hemlines. Ask about her earrings and you will hear about a Paris flea market, cheerfully and at length.

Lea, 161 cm, auburn waves, treats a plan as a first draft and every dining room as a design problem worth discussing over the first glass. She changes course with such charm that nobody at the table minds.

Rosa, 160 cm, chestnut curls and a curving figure, bakes sourdough weekly and collects soul records. An evening with her unwinds at walking pace between the small galleries of Cork Street, followed by an early dinner where the bread is good and nobody minds a second slice of cake.

Tiffany, with her long chocolate brown hair, keeps a film camera in her bag and a sketchbook of hotel lamps, and she would settle into a low-lit bar full of witty details, point out the three most interesting people in it and order something sparkling.

Sonya, 162 cm, athletic, with the carriage of someone who has danced for most of her life, meditates each morning and lets an evening unfold at the speed of afternoon tea. She is in her thirties and the most unhurried of the seven.

Lucy, 163 cm and slender, with long dark curls, is an astronomer at heart. A Friday talk on science in an old lecture theatre, then a quiet supper where she condenses the evening's best idea into a single sentence, is her ideal beginning.

Some reasons are practical: a table for two in a small room, a dance floor, a reception where a guest would rather not be towered over in the photographs. Some guests simply prefer it. Either reason is perfectly good, and Cressida will not ask which applies. For a night that moves from a cocktail bar to a dance floor, the page on clubland after ten explains how it is arranged.

Apart from Lea, whose hair is auburn, every one of the seven is a brunette. Sonya and Tina also belong to the toned and athletic character, Rosa to the curvaceous and Lucy to the slim and slender. Their ages run across all three stages: Jasmin, Lea, Lucy and Tiffany in their early twenties, Rosa and Tina in their late twenties, Sonya in her thirties.

Tell Cressida the name, the date and the hotel. If all you know is the tempo you want, quick, measured or slow, say that instead; it is often the more useful instruction, and she will choose accordingly and tell you why.