The duchess wiped her eyes, and nodded.
"Unnatural old beggar!" added the duke.
"Still," persisted Nina, "I think we should wire him."
"Do as you please," he granted; "but he won't come. He never comes. Hasn't put foot off his own lands in twenty years. If there was anything wrong with Nibbetts's brain it was hereditary."
"There wasn't anything wrong with it," Nina declared warmly. For eighteen hours she had been trying to convince herself there wasn't. "It was just his way."
"But it wasn't his way at all," contradicted his grace. "That's just the point. Nibbetts never did play the fool before, even for a purpose. He was too jolly indifferent."
"It's my opinion," put in Donty Down, "that he's been having trouble over that girl in Dundee."
"Nibbetts wouldn't let any girl make trouble for him," persisted the duke. "I say he's too indifferent."
"I am going to wire the earl," said Nina in an effort to quench the dispute.
"He won't come. I tell you he won't come. You try it and see," the duke flung after her as he crossed to the door.