Tea was just going out to the lawn when they arrived, and the butler saying that Mrs. Grainger was out there led them through the house and across the lawn. Edith was sitting with her back to them in a large basket chair, and did not hear them approach, while by her lay Hugh in a hammock reading aloud the mad tea party from “Alice in Wonderland.” Edith heard them first and got up; Hugh’s voice still went on:
“‘But they were in the well,’ said Alice.”
“‘Of course they were,’ said the Dormouse. ‘Well in.’”
Hugh gave a great crack of laughter.
“Oh, dear, how nice! It doesn’t mean anything at all. No idea of any kind creeps in. Oh! Hullo, Dick! How are you, Mrs. Owen?”
Edith was, as always, perfectly natural and cordial, and delighted to see them, but Mrs. Owen felt that her entry, which was to have been so winning, was a little spoiled by the heat. Five minutes, however, were sufficient to restore her, and she set to work then without delay to make the impression she should have made on arrival.
“Yes, I always tell everybody that you have a perfect house, and a perfect garden, Mrs. Grainger,” she said. “I am afraid I always break the Tenth Commandment whenever I come here.”
It was some consolation to Edith, since she must be held partly responsible for her house and garden, that Mrs. Owen had only broken the Tenth Commandment once before, and then only with regard to an imperfect view of the front hall, for she had been out when Mrs. Owen called, and her visitor had only left cards. But she replied that she did think it was a pleasant situation, and Mrs. Owen continued.
“Yes, I tell all my set so,” she said. “Like you, I am just back from town, and how delicious the country is, is it not, after the whirl and rush of London. Sometimes I wonder why I ever go to town at all, and yet I suppose one would get a little rusty and old-fashioned if one didn’t bring oneself up to date occasionally. Perhaps it is even a duty. They always tell me I bury myself too much in the country, as it is, and scold me dreadfully about it.”
Edith looked at her with her pleasant direct gaze.