"Oh Mr. Carteret."
"Your expenses won't be at all large; on the contrary," said Julia.
"They shan't be; I shall look out sharp for that. I shall have the great Hutchby."
"Of course; but you know I want you to do it well." She paused an instant and then: "Of course you can send the bill to me."
"Thanks awfully; you're tremendously kind. I shouldn't think of that." Nick Dormer got up as he spoke, and walked to the window again, his companion's eyes resting on him while he stood with his back to her. "I shall manage it somehow," he wound up.
"Mr. Carteret will be delighted," said Julia.
"I daresay, but I hate taking people's money."
"That's nonsense—when it's for the country. Isn't it for them?"
"When they get it back!" Nick replied, turning round and looking for his hat. "It's startlingly late; you must be tired." Mrs. Dallow made no response to this, and he pursued his quest, successful only when he reached a duskier corner of the room, to which the hat had been relegated by his cousin's maid. "Mr. Carteret will expect so much if he pays. And so would you."
"Yes, I'm bound to say I should! I should expect a great deal—everything." And Mrs. Dallow emphasised this assertion by the way she rose erect. "If you're riding for a fall, if you're only going in to miss it, you had better stay out."