"Oh, yes, but then there's so much that doesn't always come up at the big meetings. Le dessous des cartes. In fact," Edna tactfully amended, "the other side of the cards."
"Pocket Shorthand Dictionary, Centenary Edition," was Fuller's explosive reply, as he traced the words on the book before him with a square, tobacco-stained forefinger.
Julian was vividly reminded of the highly unsuccessful tea-party given in her office by Miss Marchrose. He refrained from glancing at her, feeling intimately convinced that the same thought was in her mind at the moment.
"Shall we make a move, Fuller? It's just time."
Fairfax Fuller, with extreme and obvious thankfulness, hastily rose to comply with the suggestion.
Lady Rossiter's traditional seat was at the right-hand side of the chairman. She placed herself there and glanced round. Miss Marchrose entered just behind Sir Julian. She looked not at all shy, but merely rather doubtful.
Edna half-rose, with benevolent shielding in every line of her admirably-hung coat and skirt, but Mark Easter was before her.
"Here, Miss Marchrose, if you will," he said quietly, and making way for her at the table as he spoke. She gave him a quick glance of acknowledgment and took the place that he indicated, between young Cooper and himself at the end of the long table furthest from the chair. Julian was seated at the bottom of the table, facing the Alderman.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen," said the chairman, "I'm happy to tell you that our Commercial and Technical College is doing well, doing very well. I know how much you all have this enterprise at heart, and, indeed, I may say that to the youth of this country, it is an enterprise which cannot—which can, rather, or—er—I should say cannot be of anything but inestimable advantage."
The Alderman's opening gambit was new to nobody. Cooper put his pencil behind his ear until such time as the minutes of the conference should claim it from inaction, and only began to fidget when old Bellew made allusion to the increased attendance in the evening classes for French, "so ably presided over by Mr. Cooper."