Although Mary was already intimately involved with the Dutch composer Bernard van Dieren, Roy Campbell caught her attention immediately when she first saw him. Mary later wrote, "My sister Kathleen... and I were riding on the top of a bus in Tottenham Court Road... When we saw Roy for the first time. He got off the bus when we did and made for the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Charlotte Street. We were quite intrigued, he was so good-looking, so foreign, who could he be? Once inside the restaurant he went straight to a table where a golden-haired girl, Iris Tree, was sitting alone, evidently waiting for him."