While he talked he drank tea and devoured bread and butter with the wholesome hunger of a schoolboy. Mrs. Hulver appeared once more.
"The motor is waiting, miss. I'm afraid I can't do without the carpet thread."
"I will go at once," replied Eola, rising from the tea-table to put on her hat. "Will you come for a run in the car, Mr. Alderbury?"
"I should like it immensely," he replied with a promptness that did not escape the ears of the housekeeper.
She was not satisfied with the result of her interruption to the conversation. By despatching Miss Wenaston on a shopping errand she had aimed at putting an end to the tête-à-tête. The guest, she supposed, would be driven to his room or into the garden until Dr. Wenaston was released from his duties and could join him. As Eola disappeared in the direction of her room Alderbury turned in his impulsive way to Mrs. Hulver.
"I haven't had a moment to ask you after yourself. How have you been since we last met?"
"I've been keeping pretty well, thank you, sir. All that troubles me is the haricot veins in my legs. If I stand about too much, they swell and become very painful."
"How is your son?"
Mrs. Hulver beamed suddenly, and the severe expression that she had worn since he appeared in the verandah vanished. Next to talking about her late husbands she loved to expand on the subject of her boy.
"He is very well and grown quite the man. He tells me that he has just been made a corporal. He's in his father's old regiment, and it has been ordered out at once. He ought to be landing in less than a week's time. He has promised to come off and see his old mother the first minute he can get leave. They say that the regiment is going to Bangalore. If so I shall see him often."