Why did she insist on the fact that they were "kids" then?
"I remember it," Ninian interjected. "Old Quinny was frightfully sloppy over it. Oh, I say, I met Tom Arthurs to-day. He's going to Southampton to-morrow. The Gigantic's starting on her maiden trip, and he's going over with her. I wish to goodness I could go too!"
"Why don't you?" Mrs. Graham said. It seemed to her too that if Ninian wished to do anything that was sufficient reason why he should be allowed to do it.
"I can't get away," he answered. "We're busier than we've ever been. But I'm going to Southampton to see the Gigantic start. The biggest boat in the world! My goodness! Tom's awfully excited about it. You'd think the Gigantic was his son!..."
Henry thanked heaven that at last the conversation had veered from factories and his engagement to Mary. He tried to fasten it to the Gigantic.
"What are you so busy about that you can't go with Tom?" he asked.
"Oh, heaps of things! Old Hare's keen on building a Channel Tunnel, and he's spent a good deal of time working the thing out!"
Mrs. Graham had always imagined that the proposal to build a Tunnel between France and England was a joke, and she said so.
"Good heavens, mother!" Ninian exclaimed. "Old Hare isn't a joke. The thing's as practicable as the Tuppenny Tube. People have been experimenting for half-a-century with it. Joke, indeed! They've made seven thousand soundings in forty years!..."