"Yes; several people. Gerty, give me another bit of sugar. Percy was there, looking for his sister. Apparently they've come back. Jim Armine was there too, also looking for Percy's sister."
"Lady Hayes?"
"Yes," said Reggie, eating steadily on. "I went and looked too. But we couldn't find her. By the way, Percy wants us to go there to lunch."
Gertrude had a sudden sense that all this had happened before, that she was going to act again in a rather distasteful scene. She had a sudden, instinctive desire not to go there, a quite irrational dislike to the idea.
"Oh! I can't," she said. "I've got a cold."
Reggie looked up innocently.
"Oh! I'm so sorry for not asking. Is it worse? Poor dear!"
Gertrude had a quite unusual dislike of white, excusable lies.
"No, it's not worse; it's rather better," she said.
"Let's go, then."