"Sorry."
Kenneth's tone was so cheerfully unconcerned that Lily hurriedly broke across the light-hearted echo of it that seemed to linger, inappropriately, in the atmosphere diffused by Philip's deep vexation.
"What were you going to tell us about? Somebody with red hair whom Nicholas knows?"
"M'm."
Philip raised his eyebrows at the unceremonious mutter, and sighed, but he uttered no spoken rebuke. Lily wondered whether he gauged the full imperviousness of Kenneth to those silent tokens of disapproval that had been so potent with Philip's elder children.
"A fattish girl, with red hair."
Philip looked up sharply.
"I don't know whether you mean Doris Dickenson," said Lily. "She has red hair. She's a hospital nurse."
"That's it. I knew I'd seen her before. She looked after you when you were ill."
"Yes, she did, but when——"