"Eugene," said Mrs. Lane, in a tone as nearly severe as she ever arrived at, "if you wish your guests to have either dinner or beds, you will at once tell me who and how many they are."
"My dear mother, they are in number five, composed as follows: First, the Bishop of Bellminster."
"A most interesting man," observed Miss Chambers.
"I am glad to hear it, Aunt Jane," responded Eugene. "The Bishop is accompanied by his wife. That makes two; and then old Merton, who was at the Colonial Office you know, and Morewood the painter make four."
"Sir George Merton is a Radical, isn't he?" asked Lady Claudia severely.
"He tries to be," said Eugene. "Shall I order a carriage to take you to the station? I think, you know, you can stand it, with Haddington's help."
Mr. Spencer Haddington, the other young man in flannels, was a very rising member of the Conservative party, of which Lady Claudia conceived herself to be a pillar. Identity of political views, in Mr. Haddington's opinion, might well pave the way to a closer union, and this hope accounted for his having consented to pair with Eugene, who sat on the other side, and spend the last week in idleness at Millstead.
"Well," said Mr. Robert Territon, "it sounds slow, old man."
"Candid family, the Territons," remarked Eugene to the copper-beech.
"Who's the fifth? you've only told us four," said Kate, who always stuck to the point.