When she answered, there were the sort of preliminaries in which he had learned to participate. ‘You are well, my dear boy?’ ‘Oh, yes. And you, Cousin Louisa?’ There was some dalliance with Miss Arnold’s suspicion, contracted last night, that she might have taken a slight chill. This had, of course, to be explained in detail, together with the reassuring fact that by breakfast-time this morning the faint premonitory symptoms had subsided. She would therefore be able to attend a committee meeting of the Hospital Flower Guild to which she was pledged. ‘I really do not like to miss it unless I am absolutely obliged to do so, and dear Maud says she will not mind being left. I should be back by six o’clock. The meeting is at four, but it would be considered rude if I did not stay to tea. Mrs. Lowry who is our chairman is always so hospitable…’ The conversation ended in his being pressed to drop in at any time. Miss Silver was enjoying a comfortable cup of tea in the drawing-room when he was announced.
