"As a rescuer," Lutchester replied. "I feel that I have a mission. We cannot afford to lose your sympathies. May I introduce Philip Downing?"
Pamela shook hands with the young man and took her place between them.
"I've been envying you your seat under the tree," she said. "Couldn't we go there for a few moments?"
Mrs. Hastings detached herself and approached them. She received Philip
Downing's bow cordially, and she was almost civil to Lutchester.
"I can't have my niece taken away," she protested. "We are just going in to tea, Pamela."
Pamela shook her head.
"I am going to sit under that tree with Mr. Lutchester and Mr. Downing," she declared. "Tea doesn't attract me in the least, and that tree does."
Mrs. Hastings accepted defeat with a somewhat cynical gracefulness. She closed her lorgnette with a little snap.
"You leave us all desolated, my dear Pamela," she said. "You remind me of what your poor dear father used to say—'Almost any one could live with Pamela if she always had her own way.'"
Pamela laughed as she strolled across the lawn.