"Did he, Jennie?" returned the Marchesa, with no show of interest. "Have an egg, Colonel?" The latter words were addressed to her companion at table, Colonel Wenman, a handsome but bald-headed man of about forty.
"'Lord Lynborough, accompanied by his friend Mr. Leonard Stabb, the well-known authority on prehistoric remains, and Mr. Roger Wilbraham, his private secretary. His lordship's household had preceded him to the Castle.'"
Lady Norah Mountliffey—who sat with Miss Gilletson—was in the habit of saying what she thought. What she said now was: "Thank goodness!" and she said it rather loudly.
"You gentlemen haven't been amusing Norah," observed the Marchesa to the Colonel.
"I hoped that I, at least, was engaged on another task—though, alas, a harder one!" he answered in a low tone and with a glance of respectful homage.
"If you refer to me, you've been admirably successful," the Marchesa assured him graciously—only with the graciousness there mingled that touch of mockery which always made the Colonel rather ill at ease. "Amuse" is, moreover, a word rich in shades of meaning.
Miss Gilletson was frowning thoughtfully. "Helena can't call on him—and I don't suppose he'll call on her," she said to Norah.
"He'll get to know her if he wants to."
"I might call on him," suggested the Colonel. "He was in the service, you know, and that—er—makes a bond. Queer fellow he was, by Jove!"
Captain Irons and Mr. Stillford came in from riding, late for breakfast. They completed the party at table, for Violet Dufaure always took the first meal of the day in bed. Irons was a fine young man, still in the twenties, very fair and very bronzed. He had seen fighting and was great at polo. Stillford, though a man of peace (if a solicitor may so be called), was by no means inferior in physique. A cadet of a good county family, he was noted in the hunting field and as a long-distance swimmer. He had come to Nab Grange to confer with the Marchesa on her affairs, but, proving himself an acquisition to the party, had been pressed to stay on as a guest.