‘You can imagine the exhausted state Aunt Kate and I are in after travelling five weeks with him. We simply struck in Switzerland and sent him on to Italy alone. I had hoped he would meet us in Valedolmo, but we have been detained here longer than we expected, and now he’s rushed off again—where to, goodness only knows; we don’t.
‘Anyway, Aunt Kate and I shall land in Valedolmo about the end of the week. I am dying to see you; I have some beautiful news that’s too complicated to write. We’ve engaged rooms at the Hotel du Lac—I hope it’s decent; it’s the only place starred in Baedeker.
‘Aunt Kate wishes to be remembered to your father and Miss Hazel.
‘Yours ever,
‘Nan Hilliard.
‘P.S.—I’m awfully sorry not to bring Jerry; I know you’d adore him.’
She returned the letter to its envelope and looked up.
‘Now isn’t that abominable?’ she demanded.
‘Abominable!’ Miss Hazel was scandalized. ‘My dear, I think it’s delightful.’
‘Oh, yes—I mean about Jerry Junior; I’ve been trying for six years to get hold of that man.’