“I will take my pipe,” said Herbert, coming back to the mantelshelf. “It’s my only friend.”
“It will go out in the water,” said Clare. “Besides, Herbert, don’t you want to hear my good news? My big surprise?”
“No,” said Herbert. “Nothing you could say or do could surprise me now. If mother wants me I shall be in the study for the rest of the evening.”
“But I thought you were going to the river?”, said Clare teasingly.
Herbert was not to be amused.
“I suppose you think you’re funny? I don’t,” he said.
Then he went out and slammed the door. Clare was left alone, and there was a smile about her lips.
“Poor old Herbert,” she said. “I think he will have the surprise of his life.”
She laughed quietly to herself, and then looked up and listened as she heard a slight noise. She stood up with a sudden look of anger as she saw Gerald Bradshaw gazing at her through the open French windows.
The man spoke to her in his soft, silky voice.