"Perhaps," he said, "I'd better see him."
"Don't do anything of the sort, Uncle Evie," said Jimmy. "I know that kind of rotter and, if he once gets talking you'll not stop him under an hour and a half. Just let Hinton take my message."
Sir Evelyn hesitated. He knew that, once caught by Linker, his morning would be gone, and he had been looking forward to taking Beth Appleby and Mary Lambert round his rock garden. They were very agreeable and well-mannered young women. Jimmy might have had his way and the message might have been sent—though perhaps not delivered—by Hinton, if Beth had not recognised the name of Linker. She had heard a good deal about him from the dressmaker maid and knew that he was the man who had supplied her and Mary with clothes.
"Let me go and see him," she said. "I want to thank him for the lovely things he sent, and so does Mary. We'll both go. If I could afford it I'd order half a dozen nighties of the same pattern. I never had anything so deliciously frivolous before."
"Offer him a free advertisement in Lilith's Lispings," said Jimmy, "and perhaps he'll give you a few."
"I might do that," said Beth. "It would be a paragraph practically ready-made for next week, and that's something, even if I don't get as much as a pocket handkerchief out of him. And I ought to. 'Lilith lisps that Mr. Linker, the well-known lingerie expert of Morriton St. James, who is perhaps England's greatest artist in nightdresses, is about to startle the world with an original design in—whisper, belovedest, if there are any men in the room—cami-knickers. Anyone with a real regard for undies—and which of us has not?—will at once write to——' I must ask him his address when I see him. Come on, Mary, and let's try. An ad. like that ought to be worth something."
"Suppose we all go," said Sir Evelyn, still anxious to be polite to the influential Linker.
"I shan't stir a step," said Jimmy. "I hate that kind of oily beggar."
Hinton held the door open for the two ladies and Sir Evelyn. When they had left the room he turned to Jimmy.
"Beg pardon, my lord," he said, "I took the opportunity of speaking a few words to Mr. Linker before announcing him."