“Then the Atterby-Smiths leave on Monday if I have to turn them out of the house.  So we shall get one evening clear at any rate.  Stop a minute,” and she rang the bell.

The footman appeared as suddenly as though he had been listening at the door.

“Alfred,” she said, “tell Moxley” (he, I discovered, was the butler) “that when Mr. and Mrs. Atterby-Smith, the two Misses Atterby-Smith and the young Mr. Atterby-Smith arrive, they are to be shown to their rooms.  Tell the cook also to put off dinner till half-past eight, and if Mr. and Mrs. Scroope arrive earlier, tell Moxley to tell them that I am sorry to be a little late, but that I was delayed by some parish business.  Now do you understand?”

“Yes, my Lady,” said Alfred and vanished.

“He doesn’t understand in the least,” remarked Lady Ragnall, “but so long as he doesn’t show the Atterby-Smiths up here, in which case he can go away with them on Monday, I don’t care.  It will all work out somehow.  Now sit down by the fire and let’s talk.  We’ve got nearly an hour and twenty minutes and you can smoke if you like.  I learnt to in Egypt,” and she took a cigarette from the mantelpiece and lit it.

That hour and twenty minutes went like a flash, for we had so much to say to each other that we never even got to the things we wanted to say.  For instance, I began to tell her about King Solomon’s Mines, which was a long story; and she to tell me what happened after we parted on the shores of the Red Sea.  At least the first hour and a quarter went, when suddenly the door opened and Alfred in a somewhat frightened voice announced—­“Mr. and Mrs. Atterby-Smith, the Misses Atterby-Smith and Mr. Atterby-Smith junior.”

Then he caught sight of his mistress’s eye and fled.

I looked and felt inclined to do likewise if only there had been another door.  But there wasn’t and that which existed was quite full.  In the forefront came A.-S. senior, like a bull leading the herd.  Indeed his appearance was bull-like as my eye, travelling from the expanse of white shirt-front (they were all dressed for dinner) to his red and massive countenance surmounted by two horn-like tufts of carroty hair, informed me at a glance.  Followed Mrs. A.-S., the British matron incarnate.  Literally there seemed to be acres of her; black silk below and white skin above on which set in filigree floated big green stones, like islands in an ocean.  Her countenance too, though stupid was very stern and frightened me.  Followed the progeny of this formidable pair.  They were tall and thin, also red haired.  The girls, whose age I could not guess in the least, were exactly like each other, which was not strange as afterwards I discovered that they were twins.  They had pale blue eyes and somehow reminded me of fish.  Both of them were dressed in green and wore topaz necklaces.  The young man who seemed to be about one or two and twenty, had also pale blue eyes, in one of which he wore an eye-glass, but his hair was sandy as though it had been bleached, parted in the middle and oiled down flat.