"In fact," he continued shamelessly, "I happen to know that they are not merely pleased but ecstatic. I saw them yesterday."
"Where?" asked Mrs. Botley-Markham.
"Dear lady," replied Dicky, smiling, "where does one invariably meet the Stantons?"
"You mean at the Archdeacon's?" said Mrs. Botley-Markham.
"I do," said my reprobate friend. "They had all been down the Str--I mean to the Pan-Mesopotamian Conference," he added quite gratuitously.
"Ah, of course; they would," assented Mrs. Botley-Markham hazily, evidently wondering whether she ought to have heard of the Pan-Mesopotamian Conference. "Were they all there?"
"All but the delicate one," replied The Freak, abandoning all restraint.
"Do you mean Isobel?"
"Yes," replied the graceless Richard--"I do. Poor Isobel!" he added gently.
"I am afraid they are not a strong family," said Mrs. Botley-Markham, with a sympathetic glance which rather alarmed me. I foresaw complications.