* * * * *
There were other callers.
There is, I believe, a game called "Snip, Snap, Snorum," where if you call "Snap" too soon you are penalised, and if you call "Snap" too late you pay forfeit. Calling on the duke was a sort of game of social snap, for Kymott Crescent vacillated in an agony of apprehension between the bad form of calling too soon, and the terrible disadvantage that might accrue through calling too late and finding some hated social rival installed as confidential adviser and Fides Achates.
The Coyters were the first to call, thus endorsing the Crescent's opinion of Mrs. C.
Coyter fired off his three stories:—
(1) What the parrot said to the policeman.
(2) What the County Court judge said to the obdurate creditor who wanted time to pay (can you guess the story?).
(3) What the parson said to the couple who wanted to be married without banns.
Duke and Co. laughed politely.
Mrs. C., who had a reputation for archness to sustain, told them that they mustn't believe all the dreadful stories they heard about her, and even if she did smoke, well what of it?