"That's right," he said. "You come in. Don't take any notice of me. And don't shut the door, or the servants won't be able to see in."
"You are wanted," said I, "upon the telephone."
"How interesting!" said Berry. "I suppose you told them to hold on."
"I did."
He sank into a recumbent position and crossed his legs.
"What a marvellous thing," he said, "the telephone is. There's that fool, Heaven knows how many miles away, sitting with his ear glued to a piece of vulcanite, and here am I in the midst of an exacting toilet—d'you think he'd hear me if I were to shout? Or would you rather take a message?"
"It is," said I, "the Waddell Institute."
The savagery with which my brother-in-law invested a very ordinary expletive was quite remarkable.
"Why," he added, sitting upright, "cannot they ring up at a lawful hour? Why must they——"
The sentence was never finished. With the rush of a whirlwind, Nobby tore into the room. His delight at having run me to earth was transformed to ecstasy at encountering unexpectedly another member of the household, hitherto missing from his tale, and, observing that the latter's face was a reasonable distance from the ground, and so less inaccessible than usual, the Sealyham leapt upon the rim of the bath to offer the lick of greeting which it was his practice to bestow.