“Five minutes late. I must go back to my sermon in a moment.”
Aunt Amy said: “I hope nothing can have happened.”
Mrs. Cole said tranquilly: “We should have heard if it had.”
The front door bell rang; a maid appeared from nowhere and opened the door. From the dusk there emerged a small, heavily coated figure. Mr. and Mrs. Cole moved forward. There were embraces. Mr. Cole said: “Well, my boy.” A husky voice was heard: “Oh, I say, mother, that old squeak of a cabman——”
The short, thick-set figure turned towards the staircase.
Instantly Mary blew on her trumpet. Barbara, suddenly disliking the tissue paper, began to cry. Hamlet barked.
Through the din the quavering voice of Mary could be heard reading the poem of welcome:
“Thee, returning to your home,
Back from school and football too,
Coming to us all alone,