Edna paused, but the sympathetic response which might reasonably have been expected was not forthcoming.
"We've been so like a little family party here, I always think—especially those of us who saw the very beginning of all things. Let me see, I think you and I and Sir Julian, and of course Mr. Easter, are the only ones left of the original committee, aren't we? Oh, and the old Alderman."
Fuller emitted a sound that might conceivably pass for a rejoinder.
"They're all so pleased about Miss Easter's engagement—a wedding is always an excitement, isn't it? Have they," said Edna, momentarily thoughtless, "have they told you of their little scheme for making her a presentation?"
"As I happen to be Supervisor of the staff, they naturally came to me in the first place, Lady Rossiter."
"Of course they did. How stupid of me! One forgets all the grades and distinctions, there are so many of them now. But it was really about the presentation plans that I wanted to talk to you."
She waited in vain for some assurance that the wish had been in any way mutual.
"I felt sure that you and I would understand one another," said Edna, almost pleadingly, "if we had a little talk together."
Silence.
Lady Rossiter could no longer disguise from herself that the little talk, if it was to take place at all, must do so in the form of an unsupported monologue. She began courageously: