"Don't make yourself ridiculous, Odo!"
"Odo, you know perfectly well!"
It was a dead heat between Mrs. Arbuthnot and the Great Lady.
"Order, order," said I, sternly. "This scene belongs to Brasset. Now, Brasset, answer the question, and then perhaps something may be done."
It was not to be, however. The nephew of my uncle failed lamentably to exact obedience to the chair.
"My dear Odo," said Mary Catesby, in what I can only describe as her Albert Hall manner, with her voice going right up to the top like a flag going up a pole, "do you mean to tell me——?"
"That you don't know how Mrs. Fitz has been carrying on!" the Madam chipped in with really wonderful cleverness.
"I don't, upon oath," said I, solemnly. "You appear to forget that I have been giving my time to the nation during this abominable autumn session."
"So he has, poor dear," said the partner of my joys.
"Like a good citizen," said Mary Catesby, most august of Primrose Dames.