‘How did it go off?’
‘Were they all nice? Were you nervous?’
‘Is the house lovely?’
‘Oh, it is!’ says Susan, now having reached a seat, and feeling a little consequential with all of them sitting round her and waiting on her words. ‘You never saw such a house! Much, much more beautiful than Lady Millbank’s.’
‘Well, we all know it’s twice—four times the size; but Lady Millbank’s furniture was——’
‘Oh, that’s all changed. Mr. Crosby has furnished his house all over again from beginning to end. Of course we’ve been through it many times when he was away, but now you wouldn’t know it. It appears he has had things stored up after his travels—left in their cases, indeed—that lately have been brought to light. The drawing-room is perfect, and—the pictures——’
‘And the people?’ asks Betty impatiently; she is distinctly material.
‘Very, very nice too—that is, most of them. Miss Prior was there. She—well, I can’t bring myself to like her.’
‘What did she do to you?’ asks Dom.
‘Oh, nothing; nothing really, only——’