Lady Attwill rose also. "Poor Dicky must always have his food," she said. "I always think he never seems quite human till he has had his breakfast. When we were down at his place together——"
Collingwood nudged her with a warning look. "Piano!" he said.
"What about?" she whispered, with a rather sardonic grin. "I don't want to play."
"The waiter, I mean," Collingwood replied.
"Bien!" she answered, seating herself in front of the cafetière and pouring out the hot brown coffee.
Lord Ellerdine had also sat down. He looked at his as yet empty plate and drummed with his fingers upon the table-cloth. "'We all stayed the night at this hotel,'" he said in a perfectly audible voice.
"Oui, monsieur," said Jacques of Ecclefechan suddenly.
Ellerdine started and looked up, his face expressing great surprise. "Get away," he said. "I wasn't speaking to you."
Collingwood frowned. His nerves, now, didn't seem quite under the same control as they had been before. "Laissez les autres choses, garçon. Nous nous servirons."
"Bien, monsieur," said the waiter, with an ugly and furtive smile upon his face, which nobody noticed, as he left the room.