“I’ll be going for my walk,” she said. “Whatever Mamma wants, my dear, she doesn’t want us.”
“Where’s Colin?” asked old Lady Yardley.
“He hasn’t come, Granny,” said Violet. “I don’t think he’s coming to-day.”
“Yes, he’s coming to-day,” said Lady Yardley. “Is he here now? Is he with Raymond? I want Colin.”
“Granny dear, he’s in London,” said Violet. “We’ll let you know the moment he comes.”
“Just a fad she’s got, my lady,” said the nurse.... It was impossible to speak of old Lady Yardley as if she was there. There was no-one truly there, unless Colin was there, too. The nurse turned to her charge.
“You’d better let me take you back to your rooms, my lady,” she said, “and have a nice rest till dinner-time. You’ve seen for yourself that his lordship isn’t here.”
Old Lady Yardley paid not the smallest attention to this. “I shall wait for Colin on the terrace,” she said to Violet. “I shall wait there till Colin comes. He is coming.”
“Wheel her up and down then,” said Violet to the nurse.
To Aunt Hester’s great relief, old Lady Yardley consented to have her chair turned round, and be wheeled away again.