He came and sat on the arm of his mother's chair.
"I must get Marbury to help. I want to see you talking to Lady Mary over a tea-table by the Brother's Adam."
"Peter, this is the third time to-day you have mentioned Lord Marbury's sister."
"Naturally, mother. This is polling day at Highbury. I've been wondering how things are going."
A few days later Marbury came to town and took his seat as member for Sandhaven. Peter secured him for the following evening, and they all three dined together at the flat in Golder's Green. Marbury was called upon for advice as to Curzon Street.
"Peter," he said, "this is a new phase. Don't encourage him, Mrs. Paragon. He wasn't intended for an exquisite. He's too robust."
"He does not need encouraging," said Mrs. Paragon. She had calmly accepted Peter's new enthusiasm, and now only wondered how long it would endure.
"Peter has already sold all our furniture," she added by way of information. "It will disappear at the end of the week."
"What are you going to do in the meantime?" asked Marbury, exchanging an intelligible smile with Mrs. Paragon.
Mrs. Paragon quietly answered him, unaware of the irony which lurked in her undisturbed acceptance of the inevitable.