"What people? It's only old Jack Temple, and Carol. Harmless as kittens, what? But I'll get Pam for you in two twos. You watch."
He put his fingers into his mouth and emitted a peculiar low whistle on two prolonged notes. The signal was instantly answered from the other room, but quaveringly, as though the whistler were laughing.
Then in a minute she appeared, very slim and tall, in the opening between the two rooms.
"I like your cheek, Archie!"
"I say, Pam, Alex is here."
"Oh, Alex!"
Pamela, too, looked and sounded rather embarrassed as she came forward and laid a fresh, glowing cheek against her sister's.
"Barbara telephoned last night that you'd come, and seemed awfully seedy," she said in a quick, confused way. "She ought to have made you rest today."
"Oh, no, I'm all right," said Alex awkwardly. "How you've changed, Pamela! I haven't seen you since you were at school."
Looking at her sister, she secretly rather wondered at what Barbara had said of the girl's attractiveness.