"Not strictly," said Mordaunt.
"Nor strictly untrue either," commented Jack. "I know the sort of thing. You are always doing it. Was it a child or a woman or a monkey this time?"
"It was a man," said Mordaunt.
"A man! A friend of yours, I suppose?" Jack smiled over the phrase. He had heard it on Mordaunt's lips more than once.
"Exactly. A friend of mine." The tone of Mordaunt's reply did not encourage further inquiries.
Chris, glancing at him, saw a slight frown between his brows, and promptly changed the subject.
"It's really rather good of Aunt Philippa to let me have the boys here," she said later, when they were alone together for a moment just before he took his departure. "She never gets on with them, especially Max. Of course it's partly his fault. I hope you will like each other, Trevor."
By which sentence Trevor divined that this was her favourite brother.
"We shall get on all right," he said.
"It isn't everyone that likes Max," she said. "But he's tremendously nice really, and very clever. What time will you be here to-morrow? I must try not to keep you waiting."