“You may be sure I'd be an ogre if there was no other way of keeping you, my dear,” said Brood. There was something in his voice that caused her to look up into his face quickly.
Dr Hodder, being a wonderful surgeon, managed to cut his finger with a razor-edged kris at that instant, drawing a little shriek from Miss Followed, to whom he was jocularly explaining that scientific Malays used the thing in removing one another's appendices, the surgeon being the one who survived the operation.
During the excitement incident to the bloodletting the middle-aged gentlemen glanced furtively at their watches and indulged in a mental calculation from which they emerged somewhat easier in their minds. It still wanted an hour before the theatres were out.
“Dreadful bore,” yawned one of them behind his hand.
“Stupidest woman I ever sat next to,” said the other,
Then both looked at their watches again.
Frederic joined Lydia at the table.
“A delicious scene, wasn't it?” he asked bitterly in lowered tones.
Her fingers touched his.
“What did he mean, Freddy? Oh, I felt so sorry for you. It was dreadful.”