" I warned you," said Mary. "I can't cope with her at all. I wish I could, because she's quite capable of doing something outrageous."
"Little beast!" said Hugh wholeheartedly. "Between friends, Mary, is this Baker fellow likely to make trouble?"
"I don't know, but if what Vicky told me was true I should think quite possibly. Oh dear, what a household we are!"
"Poor Mary! It's rotten for you."
"It's worse for Aunt Ermy. I oughtn't to be talking about it, but just lately things seem to have got dreadfully tense. Ever since that ghastly Prince arrived it's been most uncomfortable - rather as though we were on the brink of something disastrous."
"Do you mean that he's had something to do with it?"
"No, not really. Don't let's talk about it! I hope to Heaven Vicky hasn't gone to barge in on Uncle and Percy Baker. That would just about tear things wide open."
"Vicky," said Hugh, "wants suppressing."
"You're telling me! I say, what on earth shall we do if Baker does start a row?"
"I haven't thought out the answer to that one," Hugh confessed. "What you might call a delicate situation."