Sonya, over tea on the Promenade

There is a particular stillness about Sonya, the kind that comes from years of practice rather than temperament alone. At 162 cm her frame is athletic and neat, a dancer's frame; the dark brown hair falls long and straight, and there is a softening in the hazel eyes whenever she smiles. For evening she chooses understatement, charcoal silk and a fine wool wrap, one fine ring, and a fragrance you will want to ask about and may feel too polite to.

Calm, thoughtful and warm, she suits a guest who wants the pace of the day to fall away. Early thirties. She speaks English in a low, gentle register, and she is a very good listener and a better questioner. Meditation anchors her mornings. Ballet has run through her life since she was small, first at the barre and now from a seat in the stalls. Fragrance collecting is the private passion: dozens of bottles, a few of them rare, each described in words that make you want to smell it at once.

On Park Lane her chosen room is The Promenade at The Dorchester, the long gilded lounge where afternoon tea turns softly into evening drinks and a pianist plays somewhere in the background. She likes its sense of ceremony and the way it slows everyone down. She will take a corner sofa, order something delicate and let the conversation find its own pace. She has never once looked at her watch there.

Sonya lives in Knightsbridge and keeps early evenings, roughly five until ten. The hotels she knows are listed on the Park Lane page; Cressida can arrange a gentle evening through booking.