“Has Derek come, Uncle Tod?”
Tod raised his eyes. He did not seem in the least surprised to see her, as if his sky were in the habit of dropping his relatives at ten in the morning.
“Gone out again,” he said.
Nedda made a sign toward the children.
“Have you heard, Uncle Tod?”
Tod nodded and his blue eyes, staring above the children's heads, darkened.
“Is Granny still here?”
Again Tod nodded.
Leaving Felix in the garden, Nedda stole upstairs and tapped on Frances Freeland's door.
She, whose stoicism permitted her the one luxury of never coming down to breakfast, had just made it for herself over a little spirit-lamp. She greeted Nedda with lifted eyebrows.