Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/222

 Drewitt, blinking his eyes like a puzzled owl, then feeling that the surest defence lay in offence, he turned to Beresford.

"I suppose you've been spending money again," he sneered.

"No, Edward," said Beresford with a smile, he felt he could afford to smile at everything to-day, "as a matter of fact the taxi-man brought me for nothing."

"Have you ever read Don Quixote?" enquired Drewitt of Edward Seymour.

He shook his sandy little head. He always felt at a disadvantage with Drewitt.

"That would explain my allusion, Teddy. Now you must run away to Cecily, or she will think you are lost. Give her my love, and tell her I shall dispute the will." The smile which accompanied these words robbed them of some of their sting.

"I'll tell Aunt Caroline that you're back," said Edward Seymour to Beresford as he walked towards the door.

Beresford nodded as the door closed behind him.

"That's just the sort of thing that dear, amiable, sweet-natured little Teddy would do," said Drewitt. "Richard, before you plunge me into the maelstrom of your adventures, I beseech you to ring for coffee."

Beresford did so.

"No, Richard, not a word until I am fortified. Three times this week have I seen the aunt, twice been buttonholed by Sir Redman Bight, the club