She found the doctor’s wife in a state of annoyance and disquiet, and was greatly surprised to be told that this condition had been caused by a note which had just been brought to her from her husband, stating that he had been called away to a distant patient, and would not be able to come home to luncheon.

“My dear Kitty!” exclaimed Miss Panney, “I should have thought you were thoroughly used to that sort of thing.  I supposed a country doctor would miss his mid-day meal about half the time.”

“And so he does,” said Mrs. Tolbridge; “but I was particularly anxious that he should lunch at home to-day, and he promised me that he would.”

“Well,” said the old lady, “you will have to bear up under it as well as you can, and I hope they will give him something to eat wherever he is going.”

Mrs. Tolbridge seemed occupied, and did not answer.

“Miss Panney,” she said suddenly, “will you stay and take lunch with me?  I should like it ever so much.”

“Are you going to have strawberries?” asked Miss Panney.

Mrs. Tolbridge hesitated a little, and then replied, “Yes, we shall have them.”

“Very well, then, I’ll stay.  The Witton strawberries are small and sour this year; and I haven’t tasted a good one yet.”

During the half hour which intervened before luncheon was announced, Miss Panney discovered nothing regarding the matter which brought her there.  She would ask no questions, for it was Kitty Tolbridge’s duty to introduce the subject, and she would give her a chance; but if she did not do it in a reasonable time, Miss Panney would not only ask questions, but state her opinion.

When she sat down at the pretty round table, arranged for two persons, Miss Panney was surprised at the scanty supply of eatables.  There was the tea-tray, bread and butter, and some radishes.  Her soul rose in anger.

“Slops and fruit,” she said to herself.  “She isn’t worthy to have any sort of a husband, much less such a one as she has.”

There was a vase of flowers in the centre of the table; but although Miss Panney liked flowers, at meal-times she preferred good honest food.

“Shall I give you a cup of tea?” asked her hostess.

The old lady did not care for tea, but as she considered that she could not eat strawberries on an empty stomach, she took some, and was just about to cast a critical eye on the bread, when a maid entered, bearing a dish containing two little square pieces of fish, covered with a greenish white sauce, and decorated with bits of water-cress.

As soon as Miss Panney’s eyes fell upon this dish, she understood the situation—­Mrs. Tolbridge had actually fallen back upon Kipper.  Kipper was a caterer in Thorbury, and a good one.  He was patronized by the citizens on extraordinary festive occasions, but depended for his custom principally upon certain families who came to the village for a few months in the summer, and who did not care to trouble themselves with much domestic machinery.