Major Tibbet held both hands out in front of him as he replied:
“I have ordered dinner at the King’s Restaurant—a sumptuous dinner, Miss Norah—at seven—exactly! It is already a quarter past—it will be spoilt!”
“Will it? Then we will dine elsewhere.”
“Dine elsewhere?”
“Certainly. Where we are not likely to encounter black looks, and excuses, because we choose to be a little late.”
“But—I shall have to pay in any case.”
“Shall you? Mr Rumford, where do you propose that we shall dine?”
He displayed a feeling for his fellow of which I chose to show myself incapable.
“Well, Miss Norah, I gathered that the Major had arranged to dine at the King’s.”
“At seven. But we can’t eat a seven-o’clock dinner at half-past; we want to have something fit to eat. Have you nothing, Mr Hammond, to suggest?”