"Know!" Ellerdine retorted. "I'll bet Collingwood a fiver all London knows to-night."
He looked anxiously at the other man, unable to understand how he could take things so easily, absolutely unconscious of anything underlying this unfortunate occurrence, absolutely unsuspicious of the sinister forces at work around him.
"Oh, bosh!" Collingwood answered. "Anyway, we can say we all got on the wrong train."
"'That we all got on the wrong train,'" came with parrot-like precision from the diplomatist.
"But we didn't," Lady Attwill said, looking from one to the other.
Lord Ellerdine jumped up from his chair, his face radiant with triumph. "There you are!" he said to Collingwood. "Just what I told you!"
Lady Attwill became alive to the situation. "Oh, I see," she said; "that is the short, straight, simple tale. I see. 'We all got on the wrong train.'"
"You see, Dicky!" Collingwood said with a smile. "See how quickly Alice picks it up."
"Oh, she's used to it," said Ellerdine. "She picks up things very quickly. But tell her the sequel—that's the water-jump for me."
"Come on; let's have a look at it," said Lady Attwill.