"What?" roared Carnaby. "Bush? I'll bush you!"
"Carnaby," his sister remonstrated, "be calm. Yes, we are just from Australia."
"Friends of Mr. Gage's?" Lady Agatha enquired, in a tone of disgusted resignation.
"Friends of Lord Quorn," Peckover corrected swiftly.
"And of Mr. Gage's, I should hope," Lalage added with an embarrassing show of affectionate insistence.
"Ah!" said Lady Agatha, transferring her attention and her glasses to Carnaby, "Lord Quorn's former sheep partner, perhaps?"
"What?" shouted the worthy fellow, more bellicose than usual under the influence of the sherry. "Sheep partner?"
"It is not necessary," observed Lady Agatha with cutting distinctness, "to speak so loud. I am not aware that any one in the room is deaf."
"What," demanded Carnaby of Peckover in a roaring whisper, "does the old lady mean by calling me a sheep partner?"
"Hush! It's all right," he replied. "She thinks you are an Australian swell—a mutton-king."