Hilda looked critically at the tea table. She was evidently an expert in cakes.
“You can’t have got all those out of one shop,” she said. “There isn’t a place in Dublin that has so many varieties!”
“I’m glad you like the look of them. Which of you will pour out the tea?”
“Hilda’s birthday was last month,” said Lalage. “Mine isn’t till July.”
This settled the point of precedence. Hilda took her seat opposite the teapot.
“There are ices coming,” I said a few minutes later, “twelve of them. I mention it in case——”
“Oh, that’s all right,” said Lalage. “We shall be able to manage the ices. There isn’t really much in these cakes.”
If Selby-Harrison had come there would, I think, have been cakes enough; but there would not have been any to spare. I only ate two myself. When we had finished the ices we gave ourselves to conversation.
“That Tithers man,” said Lalage, “seems to be a fairly good sort.”
“Is Tithers another name for the Puffin?”