Presently Lord Dreever’s name came up.
It caused a momentary pause, and McEachern took advantage of it. It was the cue for which he had been waiting.
He hesitated for a moment, for the conversation was about to enter upon a difficult phase, and he was not quite sure of himself.
Then he took the plunge.
“I have just been talking to Sir Thomas, my dear,” he said. He tried to speak casually, and as a natural result infused so much meaning into his voice that Molly looked at him in surprise. McEachern coughed confusedly. Diplomacy, he concluded, was not his forte. He abandoned it in favour of directness.
“He was telling me that you had refused Lord Dreever this evening.”
“Yes, I did,” said Molly. “How did Sir Thomas know?”
“Lord Dreever told him.”
Molly raised her eyebrows.
“I shouldn’t have thought it was the sort of thing he would talk about,” she said.