Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/104

 Lady Drewitt grimly. "Why are you in town?"

"I've had pneumonia, and the doctor ordered me to Folkestone, so"

"Then why didn't you go there?" demanded Lady Drewitt uncompromisingly.

Beresford racked his- brains for some reason he could give as to why he had not gone direct to Folkestone.

"You see," he began hesitatingly, then with inspiration, "I had to come to town to get some clothes." He looked down at his well-groomed person.

"You don't want clothes at Folkestone in June," snapped Lady Drewitt.

"Men do, Aunt Caroline," said Beresford; "it's only the seaside-girl who does without."

"Don't be indelicate." Then after a pause she continued, "You come and tell me you are about to become a tramp, and the next I hear is that you are living at the Ritz-Carlton. I want to know what it means."

"To be frank, Aunt Caroline, it means that the country-side was too exciting for me. It requires a constitution of bronze and a temperament of reinforced concrete."

"When you see your way to talk sense, Richard, I shall possibly be able to understand you." Lady Drewitt folded her hands in her ample black silk lap and waited.

"I doubt it," said Beresford pleasantly. "As a matter of fact I entirely fail to understand myself."