“So I said, ‘with your tendency to bronchitis I shall send for Doctor Giles, and it will be a good opportunity to make his acquaintance now that our dear Doctor Whittington has retired.’”
It went on a long time, Mrs. Robinson beaming indiscriminately on me and her daughter-in-law.
At last, when she was deeply involved in Arthur’s teething, I murmured a few words and stood up to go.
“You will promise faithfully, won’t you, to look in again to-morrow.”
I said that a telephone message would summon me at any moment. As I held out my hand I heard a loud splash.
“Now, Dr. Giles, you are wondering what that is,” said Mrs. Robinson gleefully.
I looked round and saw at the further end of the immense be-mirrored double drawing-room a grove of begonias, and heard a faint trickle of water.
“It’s an aquarium,” said Mrs. Robinson triumphantly, and she looked archly at me. “Shall we tell Dr. Giles about it, Blanche?”
“It has a goldfish in it,” said Blanche, opening her lips for the first time.
“That was the splash you heard,” continued Mrs. Robinson, as if she were imparting a secret. “That splash was made by the goldfish.”