Milvain, with a clear vision of his friend in London, burst into laughter. But at that point Alfred rose from his chair.
‘Shall we rejoin the ladies?’ he said, with a certain pedantry of phrase and manner which often characterised him.
‘Think over your ways whilst you’re still young,’ said John as he shook hands with his visitor.
‘Your brother speaks quite seriously, I suppose?’ Jasper remarked when he was in the garden with Alfred.
‘I think so. It’s amusing now and then, but gets rather tiresome when you hear it often. By-the-bye, you are not personally acquainted with Mr Fadge?’
‘I didn’t even know his name until you mentioned it.’
‘The most malicious man in the literary world. There’s no uncharitableness in feeling a certain pleasure when he gets into a scrape. I could tell you incredible stories about him; but that kind of thing is probably as little to your taste as it is to mine.’
Miss Harrow and her companions, having caught sight of the pair, came towards them. Tea was to be brought out into the garden.
‘So you can sit with us and smoke, if you like,’ said Miss Harrow to Alfred. ‘You are never quite at your ease, I think, without a pipe.’
But the man of letters was too preoccupied for society. In a few minutes he begged that the ladies would excuse his withdrawing; he had two or three letters to write before post-time, which was early at Finden.