"Upon my soul," the Colonel said, accepting the coffee Peter handed him, and a glass of old brandy, "I must say I hope you people won't allow yourselves to be scared away from the Priory. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have any neighbours." He bowed gallantly to Celia. "And such charming ones too." He sipped his liqueur. "It's a great boon to a lonely old bachelor like myself to be able to pop in for a quiet rubber in the evenings."
"Think how nice it is for us to have such a friendly neighbour," Celia smiled. "So often people who live in the country get stuffy, and won't call on newcomers till they've been in the place for years."
"Well, when one has knocked about the world as I have, one gets over all that sort of rubbish!" replied the Colonel. "Never had any use for stand-offishness. Aha, Miss Fortescue, I see you are preparing for the engagement. What do you say? Shall we two join forces and have our revenge on Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm?"
Margaret had swept the cards round in a semi-circle. "Yes, do let's!" she agreed. "We owe them one for our awful defeat last time we played. Shall we cut for seats?"
They took their places at the table, and as the cards were dealt the Colonel bethought himself of something, and said with his ready laugh: "By the way, what have you done with your watch-dog? Give you my word I was expecting him to pounce out on me at any moment, for I strolled across the park to get here."
"Oh, we've diverted him," Charles answered. "Our nerves wouldn't stand it any longer."
"Besides, he's done the trick," Celia said. "Bowers, whose faith in him is really touching, seems to be settling down quite happily. If I did this, I shall say a spade."
The game proceeded in silence for some time, but at the end of the rubber the Colonel reverted to the subject, and cocking a quizzical eyebrow in Charles' direction said: "By the by, Malcolm, have you been setting your sleuth on to old Titmarsh? Oh, you needn't mind telling me! I shan't give you away!"
"We had to get rid of him somehow," Peter said. "So we thought Titmarsh would keep him well occupied."
This seemed to amuse the Colonel considerably, but after his first outburst of laughter he said: "But you don't think old Titmarsh has been playing jokes on you, do you?"