Mona's heart stood still, but the situation had to be faced.
"How kind of you to come and see me!" she said, going forward to meet him. "Aunt Maud, Uncle Douglas, this is my friend Mr Brown."
She laid the least possible deliberate emphasis on the words "my friend," and she turned to her uncle right proudly as she said them.
Sir Douglas had risen from his chair when she did, and now he bowed somewhat formally. The lines of his mouth were a little hard. Possibly he found it difficult to suppress a smile.
Mona made a motion of her hand towards an easy-chair, and Mr Brown seated himself on the edge of it, wiping his brow with a large silk handkerchief.
"I was coming up to town on business," he said shyly, "so I got your address from Mrs Easson."
"Oh yes. How is Mrs Easson?"
"She wasn't very well a week or two back, but she seems pretty much in her usual again."
Mona turned to her aunt. "Mr Brown is a fellow-enthusiast of mine on the subject of botany," she said. "He is the greatest living authority on the fauna and flora of the district in which he lives. I want him to write a book on the subject."
"Indeed!" said Lady Munro, with a pretty assumption of interest.