"No—only over to Greengates." He was so accustomed to making this reply that it came out almost automatically and certainly caused Chloe no surprise.
"It's Iris' birthday, isn't it, Bruce?" Cherry flatly refused to endow her uncle with the title which rightly belonged to him. "What are you going to give her?"
"Give her? Well, come round here, and you shall see."
Nothing loth, Cherry obeyed, and stood beside him attentively while he opened a small leather case and took out a pair of earrings each consisting of a tiny, pear-shaped moonstone dangling at the end of a thin platinum chain.
"Earrings! But Iris hasn't any holes in her ears, my dear!" Cherry's consternation was genuine.
"I know that, you little goose! But these don't want holes—see, you screw them on like this."
He took one of her little pink ears in his fingers and screwed on the earring deftly.
"There, run and look at yourself," he commanded, and she trotted away to an oval glass which hung on the wall between the long windows. As she moved, Cheniston passed the remaining earring to his sister.
"What do you say, Chloe—is it a suitable present for her ladyship!"
Chloe took up the little trinket with a rather dubious air.