"I'm awfully sorry," he said, as his companion paused for breath. "I know it's all frightfully interesting, but I don't seem somehow to follow. How would it be if we slid into the dining-room and thrashed the whole thing out quietly over a thoughtful steak or something?"

Mrs. Waddington eyed him with a distaste that bordered on contempt.

"You surely do not imagine that I propose to waste time eating?"

"Eh?" His lordship's jaw fell an inch. "Not eat?"

"Certainly not. I will repeat what I was saying, and please listen attentively this time."

"But I say! No dinner?"

"No."

"No soup?"

"No."

"No fish? No nourishment of any description?"