Her voice trailed off lamentably into a plea for kind treatment and gentleness.  Here was Millie Splay’s second preoccupation.  As it was Sir Chichester’s passion to see his name printed in the papers, so it was Millie’s to gather in the personages of the moment under her roof.  She had promised that this party should be just a small one of old friends with Luttrell as the only new-comer.  But personages were difficult to come by at this date, since they were either deep in work or out of the country altogether.  They had to be brought down by a snap shot, and very often the bird brought down turned out to be a remarkably inferior specimen of his class.  Millie Splay had been tempted and had fallen; and she was not altogether easy about the quality of her bird, now on its descent to her feet.

“I didn’t know any one else was coming,” said Sir Chichester, who really didn’t care how much Lady Splay gratified her passion, so long as he got full satisfaction for his.

“No, nor any one else,” said Dennis Brown severely.  “He is a stranger.”

“To you,” replied Millie Splay, showing fight.

Harold Jupp advanced and planted himself firmly before her.

“Do you know him yourself, Lady Splay?” he asked.

“But of course I do,” the poor lady exclaimed.  “How absurd of you, Harold, to ask such a question!  I met him at a party when Joan and I were in London at the beginning of this week.”  She caught again at her fleeting courage.  “So I invited him, and he’s coming this afternoon.  I shall send the motor to meet him in an hour from now.  So there’s an end of the matter.”

Harold Jupp shook his head sagely.

“We must see that the plate is all locked up safely to-night.”

“There!  I knew it would be like this,” cried Millie Splay, wringing her hands.  She remembered, from a war correspondent’s article, that to attack is the only successful defence.  She turned on Jupp.

“I won’t be bullied by you, Harold!  He’s a most charming person, with really nice manners,” she emphasised her praise of the absent guest, “and if only you will study him whilst he is here—­all of you, you will be greatly improved at the end of your visit.”

Harold Jupp was quite unimpressed by Millie Splay’s outburst.  He remained severely in front of her, judge, prosecutor and jury all in one, and all relentlessly against her.

“And what is his name?”

Lady Splay looked down and looked up.

“Mr. Albany Todd,” she said.

“I don’t like it,” said Harold Jupp.

“No,” added Dennis Brown sadly from a corner.  “We can’t like it, Lady
Splay.”

Lady Splay turned with her most insinuating smile towards Brown.

“Oh, Dennis, do be nice and remember this isn’t your house,” she cried. 
“You can be so unpleasant if you find any one here you don’t like.  Mr.
Albany Todd’s quite a famous person.”