"I wondered what had become of you," Camilla remarked.
"I've been indoors," he said curtly.
Heavens, what a party! thought Dinah. It only needs Geoffrey doing his highly-strung act to make it complete. Even Lola would be a relief.
Stephen Guest was feeling in his pockets. Halliday said mechanically: "Tobacco? I've got some."
Guest got up, shaking his head. "Thanks, I think I'll fetch my own, if you don't mind." He went into the house, and Dinah thought, with an inward grin: Getting too much for poor old Stephen; really, it's more like a home for mental cases than a house-party.
Mrs. Chudleigh's voice recalled her wandering attention. "Your sister looks far from well, Miss Fawcett."
"Anyone who had to live with my brother-in-law would look far from well," said Dinah with incorrigible outspokenness.
"The General is not an easy man to manage, of course. Naturally we all know that. I am afraid this distressing affair of Geoffrey's has been too much for your sister."
"Well," said Dinah, of intent, "it's a fairly rotten position for her, isn't it? Geoffrey isn't her son, and she can't do anything to stop Arthur disowning him, and everybody who doesn't know her — not people like you, of course — will at once think that she's been doing the wicked stepmother."
"It is a pity," said Mrs. Chudleigh, "that Lady Billington-Smith is so much younger than the General."