Mr. Garrett raised himself rather reluctantly out of his armchair.
"Oh," said Iris, on a sudden piercing note of inspiration, to Miss Marchrose, "do come too. I'm sure you'll be too late for anything at that awful farm place, and we should so like to have you. Then you could sing 'Annie Laurie' for Mark."
Miss Marchrose declined the invitation in spite of the one-sided angle of solicitation to which Iris inclined her golden head, but Julian thought that she seemed pleased at the younger girl's very evident cordiality.
He listened next moment with a surprise half-shadowed by a vague unformulated suspicion, as Iris suddenly urged upon her brother the necessity for his escorting Miss Marchrose to her lodgings.
Extravagant solicitude for the welfare of a member of her own sex was no habitual foible of Miss Easter's, and for a moment Julian wondered whether she thought herself to be doing her brother a service.
Miss Marchrose, however, very decidedly declined all companionship on her short walk, and Mark showed no disposition to force the point.
Sir Julian said nothing at all, but went with the guests to the gates of the drive.
"Ta-ta!" said Miss Easter in preposterous valediction, raising herself on tiptoes, and clinging in an engaging manner to Mr. Garrett's elbow.
"Good night," said Miss Marchrose generally, and turned upon her way.
Sir Julian accompanied her to the farm without evoking any protestation but a laughing one, and she told him how much she had enjoyed the afternoon.