"We needn't start until four, mother," she heard him say. "But I'm afraid it is clearing."
Honoria turned from the window.
"Yes, it is clearing," she remarked, "incontestably clearing! You won't escape the Grimshott function after all."
"It's a nuisance having to go," Richard replied. "But you see this is an old engagement. People are wonderfully civil and kind. I wish they were less so. They waste one's time. But it doesn't do to be ungracious, and we needn't stay more than half an hour, need we, mother?"
He looked up at Honoria.
"Don't you think, on the whole, you'd better come too?" he said.
But the young lady shook her head smilingly. She stood close beside Lady Calmady.
"Oh dear, no," she answered. "I am quite absolutely certain I hadn't better come too."
Richard continued to look up at her.
"Half the county will be there. Everything will be richly, comprehensively dull. Think of it. Do come," he repeated, "it would be so good for your soul."