“I am here,” he said, “at His Excellency’s express command——”
“Quite so,” said Dr. O’Grady. “We understand. You’re his representative. He was pretty well bound to send somebody considering the way he’s treated us, telegraphing at the last moment. We’re quite ready to make excuses for him, of course, if he’s got a sudden attack of influenza or anything of that sort. At the same time he ought to have come unless he’s very bad indeed. However, as you’re here, we may as well be getting on with the business. Where’s Doyle?”
Doyle was just behind him. He was, in fact, plucking at Dr. O’Grady’s sleeve. He leaned forward and whispered:
“Speak a word to the gentleman about the pier. He’s a high up gentleman surely, and if you speak to him he’ll use his influence with the Lord-Lieutenant.”
“Be quiet, Doyle,” said Dr. O’Grady. “Go off and get the bouquet as quick as you can and give it to Mrs. Gregg.”
Lord Alfred Blakeney, who had gasped with astonishment at the end of Dr. O’Grady’s last speech to him, recovered his dignity with an effort.
“You evidently don’t understand that I have come here, at the Lord-Lieutenant’s express command——”
“You said that before,” said Dr. O’Grady.
“To ask for—in fact to demand an explanation of——”
“I should have thought that you’d have offered some sort of explanation to us. After all, we’ve been rather badly treated and——”