“Yes, something else. Will you have a broken collar-bone, or shall I take your temperature? Only—” with a sigh.
“What?”
“The thermometers do break so easily! This is my third. Please be careful.”
Millie promised. The thermometer was inserted under Millie’s arm.
“Now we can talk,” Lady Fanny remarked with satisfaction, stretching herself in a basket-chair. “Oh dear, oh dear, don’t you think it a little hard that I can’t get proper attention from Milborough? This waiting is horrid.”
“Oh, horrid!” Millie agreed. “But you must hear soon. I suppose the fact is that he has been so busy since he came back, that he has not had the time to go into it.”
“Busy! Milborough busy! Little you know him. Too idle to read his letters is more likely. But I do think he might take the trouble to open mine.”
“I wonder whether he met the Martyns?” Millie said reflectively.
“If he has, and if I know Milborough, he has fallen in love with Miss Dalrymple.” Fanny was too much concerned with meditation on her own affairs to notice that Millie made a quick movement before she said—
“You forget—poor Mr Forbes! I do think it is so terribly sad!”