Sir Wilfrid had
had rather a trying time with the stable cat and subsequently with
the coachman. Agnes Resker ostentatiously limited her repast to a
morsel of dry toast, which she bit as though it were a personal
enemy; while Mavis Pellington maintained a vindictive silence
throughout the meal. Lady Blemley kept up a flow of what she
hoped was conversation, but her attention was fixed on the
doorway. A plateful of carefully dosed fish scraps was in
readiness on the sideboard, but sweets and savoury and dessert
went their way, and no Tobermory appeared either in the dining-
room or kitchen.
The sepulchral dinner was cheerful compared with the subsequent
vigil in the smoking-room. Eating and drinking had at least
supplied a distraction and cloak to the prevailing embarrassment.
Bridge was out of the question in the general tension of nerves
and tempers, and after Odo Finsberry had given a lugubrious
rendering of "Melisande in the Wood" to a frigid audience, music
was tacitly avoided. At eleven the servants went to bed,
announcing that the small window in the pantry had been left open
as usual for Tobermory's private use. The guests read steadily
through the current batch of magazines, and fell back gradually,
on the "Badminton Library " and bound volumes of PUNCH.
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