“Thank you, miss, I have already telephoned for larger supplies,” said the housekeeper. The conversation seemed to have ended, so Norah departed.
“What did she ever come for?” she asked herself desperately. “If she didn’t want to housekeep, why does she go out as a housekeeper?” Turning a corner she met the butler.
“Oh, Allenby,” she said. “We’ll have quite a houseful to-night!” She told him of the expected arrivals, half expecting to see his face fall. Allenby, on the contrary, beamed.
“It’ll be almost like waiting in Mess!” he said. “When you’re used to officers, miss, you can’t get on very well without them.” He looked in a fatherly fashion at Norah’s anxious face. “All the arrangements made, I suppose, miss?”
“Oh, yes, I think they’re all right,” said Norah, feeling anything but confident. “Allenby—I don’t know much about managing things; do you think it’s too much for the house?”
“No, miss, it isn’t,” Allenby said firmly. “Just you leave it all to me, and don’t worry. Nature made some people bad-tempered, and they can’t ’elp it. I’ll see that things are all right; and as for dinner, all that worries Miss de Lisle, as a rule, is, that she ain’t got enough cooking to do!”
He bent the same fatherly glance on her that evening as she came into the hall when the hoot of the motor told that her father and his consignment of Tired People were arriving. Norah had managed to forget her troubles during the afternoon. A long ride had been followed by a very cheerful tea at Mrs. Hunt’s, from which she and Garrett had returned only in time for Norah to slip into a white frock and race downstairs to meet her guests. She hoped, vaguely, that she looked less nervous than she felt.
The hall door opened, letting in a breath of the cold night air.
“Ah, Norah—this is my daughter, Mrs. West,” she heard her father’s voice; and then she was greeting a stout lady and a grey-haired officer.
“Dear me!” said the lady. “I expected some one grown up. How brave! Fancy you, only—what is it—a flapper! And don’t you hate us all very much? I should, I’m sure!”