There was a brief interrogative pause.
“Your Chicks,” expanded Lady Beach-Mandarin, on the verge of crooning. “Your little Chicks.”
“Oh!” cried Lady Harman understanding. “The children.”
“Lucky woman!” cried Lady Beach-Mandarin. “Yes.”
“One hasn’t begun to be friends,” she added, “until one has seen—them....”
“So true,” Mrs. Sawbridge confided to Mr. Brumley with a look that almost languished....
“Certainly,” said Mr. Brumley, “rather.”
He was a little distraught because he had just seen Sir Isaac step forward in a crouching attitude from beyond the edge of the lilacs, peer at the tea-table with a serpent-like intentness and then dart back convulsively into cover....
If Lady Beach-Mandarin saw him Mr. Brumley felt that anything might happen.