"But you needn't have come," I said gently.
He put some coal on the fire with unnecessary energy.
"What is mother doing?"
"Getting in everybody's way."
"I thought it was you who were doing that."
He vouchsafed no reply, and buried himself behind The Times, thinking, I suppose, like the ostrich, that if he covered up his head his body would not be detected.
But Jane soon routed him out.
"I have come to dress Marguerite," she announced. "Amelia is permitting it."
There was no movement from behind the paper.
"General Macintosh, I am sorry to disturb you, but the time is getting on."