Lady Oxted laughed.
"My poor man," she said, "how shallow you must be not to have seen that I only said that in order to make you come!"
"I thought of that," he said, "but rejected the suspicion as unworthy. You laid claim, very unconvincingly I allow, the other day to a passion for truth and honour. Indeed, I gave you the benefit of a doubt which never existed.—And you all go down to Vail on Saturday. I should like to come, only I have not been asked."
"No, dear," said Lady Oxted. "I forbade Harry to ask you."
"Oh! you didn't," began Harry.
"I quite understand," said Lord Oxted; "you refrained from asking me on your own account, and if you had suggested such a thing, my wife would have forbidden you. One grows more and more popular, I find, as the years pass."
"Dear Uncle Bob, you are awfully popular with me," said Evie. "Shall I stop and keep you company in London?"
"Yes; please do," said he.
"But won't it be rather rude to Lord Vail?"
"Yes, but he will forgive you," said Lord Oxted.