“What else does she say?” asked Silvia. “No message for me?”
Peter could not definitely remember any, but there was sure to have been such.
“Of course: all sorts of things. Come for a stroll, Silvia. I’m getting chilly in the shade of my straw hat. There’s another thing I want to talk over with you. Let’s go down by the lake!”
“Hurrah! I love being consulted. What is it?”
“It’s about my father. Oh, by the way, the Jackdaw asked me where he should be put, and I said the state-rooms. Is that all right?”
Silvia pinched his arm.
“When are you going to understand that you are master?” she said. “Oh, Peter, it will be lovely for him having the state-rooms. He’ll like it tremendously. Won’t he? I wish I had thought of it. It wasn’t that, I hope, that you wanted to consult me about.”
“No. Now, before I consult you, I want to ask you a question or two, which you must promise to answer not tactfully, but truly.”
“Not even a little tact, if I find it necessary?” she asked.
“Not an atom. Do you like that cartoon of his?”