“But if I stay here, you can’t.”
“Can’t I?” said Ivan. “Well, I’m going to have a blinkin’ good try.”
“Are you serious?” demanded Miss Seneschal.
“My dear girl,” said Pomeroy, “at considerable inconvenience and expense I’ve brought about two tons of luggage, four servants and a car some seven hundred miles. Would you do that by way of being comic?”
“I can’t help that,” said Belinda. “You should have inquired before you started.”
Pomeroy leaned back and covered his face.
“Oh, give me strength,” he murmured. Then: “D’you mind indicating the nature of the inquiry I should have made?”
“Whether I was here, of course.”
“I see,” said Pomeroy uncertainly. “In view of our correspondence, I disagree. The fifteenth was your suggestion, which I was mug enough to accept. But let that go. What difference d’you think such an inquiry would have made? It would certainly have satisfied curiosity, but I don’t happen to be curious.”
“I like to think,” said Belinda, “that you would have postponed your visit.”