"At the present moment I ain't," he confessed, "it is over a little question as to whether potatoes should be boiled with salt. I say without, but he's a most obstinate beggar lately—since his trouble."
Alicia ignored the addition.
"Who wrote that dreadful letter," she asked suddenly.
"What letter?" Tuppy's face was a blank.
"Oh, please don't pretend that you are ignorant—that wretched letter full of nonsensical——"
Tuppy drew himself up.
"Dear lady," he said stiffly, "if you refer to the vultures——"
With a woman's quick intuition she guessed at the authorship of that piece of imagery.
"No—I am not referring to that portion of the letter," she said tactfully, "in fact I thought that little touch rather fine," she added, inwardly praying for forgiveness, "but the letter in general—the whole idea, it was the Duke's, of course?"
"The less imaginative part was the Duke's," confessed Tuppy, "the crude outlines, so to speak, the framework——"