“What shall I do, then?” said Mr. Goddard.
“If you’d taken my advice,” said Lord Manton, “and married Miss Blow half an hour ago, you wouldn’t be in this difficulty now. Your course would have been perfectly plain. You’d simply have referred the other ladies to Miss Blow. She would have dealt with them, and not allowed them to do you any harm. However, I don’t want to rub in your past mistakes. The only course open to you now is to introduce these three to Miss Blow and let them talk the matter over quietly together while you get Mrs. Patsy Devlin to join them.”
Wilkins entered the room while Lord Manton was speaking.
“There are some ladies to see your lordship,” he said.
“To see me? To see Mr. Goddard, you mean.”
“It was your lordship they asked for.”
“There must be some mistake,” said Lord Manton. “Go to them again, Wilkins, and say that Mr. Goddard is here and will be delighted to see them.”
“I don’t see what good that will be,” said Mr. Goddard. “Wait a minute.”
But Wilkins was gone. Mr. Goddard made a protest.