"Thanks awfully, old chap," Lothian said cheerfully as they turned under the archway into the stable yard. "You're a topping whip, you know, Dicker. I can't drive a bit myself. But I like to see you."
For a moment Ingworth forgot his rancour at the praise. Unconscious of the dominant personality and the mental grin behind the words, he swallowed the compliment as a trout gulps a fly.
They descended from the trap and the stable-men began to unharness the cob. Lothian thrust his arm through the other's. "Come along, Jehu!" he said. "I want a drink badly, and I'm sure you do, after the drive. I don't care what you say, that cob is not so easy to handle." . . .
His voice was lost in the long passage that led from the stable yard to the "saloon-lounge."
CHAPTER V
A QUARREL IN THE "MOST SELECT LOUNGE IN THE COUNTY"
"I strike quickly, being moved. . . . A dog of the house of Montague moves me."
—Romeo and Juliet.
The George Hotel in Wordingham was a most important place in the life and economy of the little Norfolk town.