Here's the answer....although someone else can probably present it in a more straightforward way........!!!!
Seat Thomas (T) in chair 1 and Lily (L) in any chair from 3 - 7....she has 5 choices
Richard/Hang (RH) can be considered as one entity and can be arranged in 2 ways each
And the other 4 people can be arranged in 4! = 24 ways.....so we have
T 2 L 4 5 6 7 8 ... RH (4 choices x 2 arrangements each ) x 24 = 192 x 5 choices for Lily = 960
If Thomas is seated in chair 1 and Lily in chair 8 , we have
T 2 3 4 5 6 7 L ...RH (5 choices x 2 arrangements) x 24 = 240
So....when Thomas is seated in chair 1 there are
960 + 240 = 1200 arrangements possible
Next ....seat Thomas in chair 2 and Lily in any of the chairs 4 - 7....she has 4 choices
Following the above notations, we have
1 T 3 4 5 L 7 8 ...RH (3 choices x 2 arrangements) x 24 = 144 x 4 choices for Lily = 576
And when Thomas is seated in chair 2 and Lily in chair 8 we have
1 T 3 4 5 6 7 L ... RH 4 choices x 2 arrangements X 24 = 192
So....when Thomas is seated in chair 2 there are
576 + 192 = 768 arrangements possible
When Thomas is seated in chair 3, we have the following :
L 2 T 4 5 6 7 8 ... RH (4 choices x 2 arrangements) x 24 = 192
1 2 T 4 [Lily can occupy any chair 5 - 7] 8 ... RH (3 choices x 2 arrangements) x 24 x 3 choices for Lily = 144 x 3
1 2 T 4 5 6 7 L .... RH (4 x 2) x 24 = 192
So when Thomas is seated in the third chair we have
192*2 + 144*3 = 816 arrangements possible
And this number of arrangements wll be true when Thomas occupies any of the chairs 3 - 6
So....we have 816 (4) = 3264 possible arrangements when Thomas occupies chairs 3 - 6
When Thomas occupies chair 7, there will be the same number of arrangements as when he occupies chair 2 = 768
And when he occupies chair 8, there will be the same number of arrangements as when he occupies the first chair = 1200
So we have
1200(2) + 768(2) + 816(4) = 7200 total arrangements
