“Didn’t you get my letter?”
“I got no letter whatever. The first news I had of his Excellency’s intention of visiting Ballymoy came to me from that Mrs. Gregg half an hour ago, when she rushed into my drawing-room with her hair tumbling about her ears——”
“That’s the worst of Doyle. He means well, but he’s frightfully careless.”
“What has Mr. Doyle to do with it?”
“I gave him the letter to post. Did you really not get it?”
“I got no letter whatever.”
“I don’t know what you must have thought of us. I don’t know what Mr. Ford must have thought. I don’t know how to apologise. But the first thing we did, the very first——Mrs. Gregg and the bouquet were a mere afterthought, we just tacked her on to the programme so that the poor little woman wouldn’t feel out of it. She is a silly little thing, you know. Not more than a child after all. It was better to humour her.”
“What was in the letter which you say you posted?” said Mrs. Ford.
“I didn’t say I posted it. I said Doyle forgot to. It’s in his pocket at this moment, I expect.”
“What was in it?”