"Captain Brent and Sir Eustace have been on skis all the morning," said her mother. "We must see what they say about it."
Billy spun a coin into the air behind her back. "Heads Sir Eustace and tails Captain Brent," he muttered to the man who had commented upon Isabel's beauty. "Heads it is!"
Lady Grace turned round with a touch of sharpness at the sound of his companion's laugh. "Billy! Did I not tell you to go and wash your hands?"
Billy's green eyes smiled impudent acknowledgment. "You did, Lady Grace.
And I'm going. Good-bye!"
He pocketed the coin, winked at his friend, and departed whistling.
"A very unmannerly little boy!" observed Lady Grace, with severity.
"Come, my dear Rose! We must go in."
"I don't like either the one or the other," said Rose, with a very unusual touch of petulance. "They are always in the way."
"I fully agree with you," said Lady Grace acidly. "But it is for the first and last time in their lives. I have already told the Colonel so. He will never ask them to accompany us again."
"Thank goodness for that!" said Rose, with restored amiability. "Of course I am sorry for poor little Dinah; but there is a limit."
"Which is very nearly reached," said Lady Grace.