"The Lady and the Tiger--eh?" he said. "Connie, you are a brick! Be tender with her, won't you?" he added gently. "She's scared to death at present, and no wonder!"
Connie Carmyle, with a reassuring pat upon the anxious young man's arm, turned and sped upstairs. Dicky, hands in pockets and head in air, strolled happily back into the circle of firelight and took up his stand upon the hearthrug. Lady Adela, looking like a large volcano in the very last stages of self-suppression, sat simmering over the teacups.
The heir of the Mainwarings addressed his parents affectionately.
"Well, dear old things," he enquired, "how are we? So sorry to be late for tea, but it was an eventful and perilous journey."
The long-overdue eruption came at last.
"Dick," demanded Lady Adela explosively, "why have you brought that young person here?"
"Young per--oh, Tilly?" Dicky smiled ecstatically to himself at the very sound of Miss Welwyn's name. "Tilly? Well, I don't see what else I could have done with her, Mummie dear. I could n't leave her at the station, could I? But I must tell you about our adventures. First of all we lost Percy."
"Dick," repeated Lady Adela, "who--is--?"
"Who is Percy?" asked Dicky readily. "I forgot; I have n't told you about Percy. He is her brother. A most amazing fellow: knows everything. Can explain to you in two minutes all the things you have failed to understand for years. Teach you something you did n't know, I should n't wonder, Mother. He is going to introduce me to some of his friends, and put me up for his club."
"What club, my boy?" interposed Mr. Mainwaring, snatching at this gleam of light in the general murkiness.