“You have consulted me, you know,” she said, “and so it is your own fault. I do see also Reuss’s point of view.”
Then suddenly she burst out laughing.
“And here am I advising you as to your career when a few hours ago I had never seen you!” she said.
Hugh went straight off on this tack.
“Oh, but it’s such dreadful waste of time getting to know people!” he said. “Either one knows a person in a couple of hours or so, or else one never knows him at all.”
Peggy came down again at this moment, looking as if she had been trying anyhow to be severe.
“Edith, it’s really bedtime,” she said. “Besides, I’m going to talk to you in your bedroom probably for hours.”
Edith got up.
“Nothing wrong, Peggy?” she asked. “Are the children all right?”
“Yes, only Daisy has announced her firm determination to sit up in bed and not go to sleep. That child can when she chooses be naughtier than all the rounds of the Inferno.”