“Do you mean,” cried Sir Mallaby, choking, “the poor idiot just stood there dumb?”
“Well, he made a sort of yammering noise,” said Billie, “but that only made him look sillier.”
“Deuced good!” chuckled Sir Mallaby.
“Funniest thing I ever heard in my life!” gurgled Mr. Bennett, swallowing a digestive capsule.
“May have been half-witted,” suggested Mr. Mortimer.
Sam leaned across the table with a stern set face. He meant to change the conversation if he had to do it with a crowbar.
“I hear you have taken a house in the country, Mr. Mortimer,” he said.
“Yes,” said Mr. Mortimer. He turned to Sir Mallaby. “We have at last succeeded in persuading your sister, Mrs. Hignett, to let us rent her house for the summer.”
Sir Mallaby gasped.
“Windles! You don’t mean to tell me that my sister has let you have Windles!”