The Twelfth Hour

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Carla Foust, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
ADA LEVERSON
LONDON CHAPMAN & HALL
Originally published 1907 by Grant Richards Ltd. Reissued 1951 by arrangement with the Richards Press Ltd. Printed by Brüder Rosenbaum, Vienna, Austria Cat. No. 5090/4

Hallo, Greenstock! Lady Chetwode in?
Her ladyship is not at home, sir. But she is sure to see you, Master Savile, said the butler, with a sudden and depressing change of manner, from correct impassibility to the conventional familiarity of a patronising old retainer.
Dressing, eh? You look all right Greenstock.
Well, I am well, and I am not well, Master Savile, if you can understand that, sir. My harsthma (so he pronounced it), 'as been exceedingly troublesome lately.
Ah, that's capital! Not listening, the boy—he was sixteen, dark, and very handsome, with a determined expression, and generally with an air of more self-control than seemed required for the occasion—walked up deliberately, three steps at a time, knocked, with emphasis, at his sister's dressing-room door, and said—
I say, Felicity, can I come in?
Who's there? Don't come in!