Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/40

26 for the young man's encouragement. "There you are!"

Lord John took up the motor-cap he had laid down on coming in. "I rush to Lady Grace, but don't demoralise Bender!" And he went forth to the terrace and the gardens.

Banks looked about as for some further exercise of his high function. "Will you have tea, my lady?"

This appeared to strike her as premature. "Oh, thanks—when they all come in."

"They'll scarcely all, my lady"—he indicated respectfully that he knew what he was talking about. "There's tea in her ladyship's tent; but," he qualified, "it has also been ordered for the saloon."

"Ah then," she said cheerfully, "Mr. Bender will be glad!—" And she became with this, aware of the approach of another visitor. Banks considered, up and down, the gentleman ushered in, at the left, by the footman, who had received him at the main entrance to the house. "Here he must be, my lady." With which he retired to the spacious opposite quarter, where he vanished, while the footman, his own office performed,