“You can get a bed here and send over for your things. Your two ladies are in the other hotel, I suppose.”
“Yes. We knew you were here and Miss Battersby seemed a little afraid of catching influenza, so we went to the other.”
“That’s all right. You’ll be quite safe for the night if you stop here.”
“I wish I could, but——”
“You’ll not do any good by talking to Lalage. You know that.”
“I know that of course; but——”
“It won’t be at all pleasant for you when Miss Pettigrew comes out with that plan of hers for marrying Lalage to Vittie. There’ll be a horrid row. From what I know of Lalage I feel sure that she’ll resent the suggestion. There’ll be immense scope for language in the argument which follows and they’ll all feel freer to speak out if there isn’t a church dignitary standing there listening.”
“I know all that, but still——”
“You don’t surely mean to say that you want to go and wrangle with Lalage?”
“Of course not. I hate that kind of thing and always did; but——”