"Actually, I believe they don't," remarked Roydon.
If anything had been needed to set the seal to Mrs. Dean's disapproval of an impecunious playwright, this would have been enough. Perceiving a faintly purple tinge in her cheeks, Mr. Blyth looked at his watch, and said with rare prudence that he must not miss his train.
This had the effect of breaking up the luncheon-party. Joseph bustled off to see whether the car had been brought round to the door; Mrs. Dean said that what the young people wanted was a brisk walk to blow away the cobwebs, adding that Valerie must get Stephen to show her round the estate. Valerie, however, protested that it was a foul day, and filthily cold, and that she thought walking in the snow a lousy form of amusement anyway; and by the time her mother had taken her to task over her choice of adjectives, Stephen had vanished, and Paula had marched Roydon off to discuss the forthcoming production of Wormwood.
Mrs. Dean had contemplated an afternoon spent tete-a-tete with Maud, who, though obviously stupid, must, she thought, be able to enlighten her on various aspects of the Herriard inheritance; but this plan was frustrated at the outset by Maud herself. She said that she expected Mrs. Dean would like to lie down after her tiring morning.
"Oh dear me, no!" declared Mrs. Dean, with her wide smile. "I always say that nothing ever tires me!"
"You are very fortunate," said Maud, gathering up her knitting and a magazine. "I can never do without my afternoon rest."
So that was that. Maud went away, and Mrs. Dean was left to the company of Edgar Mottisfont.
Mathilda, meanwhile, had joined Stephen in the billiard-room, and was playing a hundred up with him, in a not very serious fashion. As she chalked the tip of her cue, she said: "Far be it from me to interfere with your simple pleasures, Stephen, but I wish you'd let up on Joe. He means so well, you know."
"You damn him in four words. Go in off the red."
"Leave me to play my own game in my own way," said Mathilda severely, but following out his instruction. "I find Joe rather pathetic."