“He means well,” complained Lady Selina.
Cicely replied:
“Who doesn’t? We all mean well. Mr. Grimshaw, so it seems to me, does well. Anyway, he never spares himself.”
“Or others. This afternoon, for instance, he showed little consideration for me. He might have broken this shocking news more gently. And he knew that I was the person most affected.”
“Well, I should have thought that Isaac Burble was that.”
Lady Selina looked penetratingly at her daughter, and then blinked, unable to see her quite clearly. What was the matter with the child?
“Of course, that goes without saying. It annoys me that you should say it.”
This, too, was a Danecourt attribute. A Danecourt cornered, a Danecourt at bay was likely to snarl. When Lady Selina missed a train she blamed invariably the railway company or appeared to do so. Once Lord Saltaire had summoned a man for using bad language. But, according to the testimony of others, the defendant was impeccably innocent. Indeed, it transpired that some swearing had been done by Lord Saltaire. When the case was dismissed Lord Saltaire remarked petulantly: “All I know is this—bad language was used; the fellow is a rogue and a vagabond.”
Cicely was discreet enough to apologise. Lady Selina continued in the same aggrieved tone:
“Mr. Grimshaw is a radical. I deplore that.”