Therefore was his future black; but in the little circle he was a sort of lion. Victoria Mosel was always talking of him; Marjorie was eager to see him once and then to discard his company for ever; Lady Bolter, full of the intellectual Victorian time, wanted to be able to say that she had been in the same room with a man of whom the Prime Minister himself had said that he was the only man whose writing he really understood. The Home Secretary had met him once or twice in other people's houses; Marjorie herself and her aunt were the only two for whom he was still quite a stranger.
"What train is he coming by?" said Tommy Galton, sunk into a deep chair.
The Home Secretary looked at his watch, then at the clock, noted they did not correspond, frowned, and said he'd be here any time.
Victoria Mosel lays odds on Mr. McTaggart's
saying "Dee-Boe-Hunn."
"I'll give you evens," said Victoria Mosel, "that he calls you Dee Boe Hunn."
"Done!" said Tommy Galton, putting up a finger.
"Bradburys?" said Vic, sucking a pencil. "Gimme a bit o' paper."
Tommy Galton wrote on his cuff. "That'll do," he said.