'I had dinner at the Tiger, and not a bad dinner either,' he said.
'Oh dear!' Harry murmured, indicating an august sympathy for Arthur Twemlow in affliction.
'If I had only known—I don't know what I was thinking of not to ask you to come here for dinner,' said Leonora. 'I made sure you would be engaged somewhere.'
'Fancy you eating all alone at the Tiger, on Sunday too!' remarked Milly.
'Tut! tut!' Twemlow protested, with a farcical exactness of pronunciation; and Ethel laughed.
'What are you laughing at, my dear?' Leonora asked mildly.
'I don't know, mother—really I don't.' Whereupon they all laughed together and a state of absolute intimacy was established.
'I hadn't the least notion of being at Bursley to-day,' Twemlow explained. 'But I thought that Knype wasn't much of a place—I always did think that, being a native of Bursley. I wouldn't be surprised if you've noticed, Mrs. Stanway, how all the five Five Towns kind of sit and sniff at each other. Well, I felt dull after breakfast, and when I saw the advertisement of Dr. Quain at the old chapel, I came right away. And that's all, except that I'm going to sup with a man at Knype to-night.'
There were sounds in the hall, and the door of the drawing-room opened; but it was only Bessie coming to light the gas.
'Is that your master just come in?' Leonora asked her.