young sister: the ankle
was much better and Spillsby was already allowed to walk on it.
Isabel then turned her large velvet eyes--gazelle eyes with a
world of pathos in their velvet gloom on her elder brother.
"Coruscate, Val," she commanded. "You haven't said anything at
all yet. We should all try to be bright in the home circle. We
cannot all be witty, but-Ow! Rowsley, if you pull my hair I
shall hit you in the--in the place where the Gauls fined their
soldiers if they stuck out on parade. Oh, Val, that really isn't
vulgar, I found it in Matthew Arnold! Their stomachs, you know.
They wouldn't have fined you anyhow. You look fagged, darling--
are you?"

"Not so much fagged as hungry," said Val in his soft voice. "It's
getting on for nine o'clock and I was done out of my tea. I went
in to Wanhope, but Laura was out, and Clowes was drinking whisky
and soda. I cannot stand whisky at four in the afternoon, and
Irish whisky at that. There'll be some supper going before long,
won't there?"

"Not until half past nine because Jimmy has his Bible class
tonight." Jimmy was Mr. Stafford: and perhaps a purist might
have objected that Mrs. Clowes and Yvonne Bendish had not done
all they might have done to form Isabel's manners. "I'm so sorry,
darling," she continued, preparing to leap to her feet. "Shall I
get you a biscuit? There are oatmeals in the sideboard, the kind
you like, I won't be a minute--"

"Thanks very much, I'd rather wait. Did you see Mrs. Clowes
today? Clowes said she was at the Castle."

"So she was, sitting with Mrs. Morley in an angelic striped
cotton. Mrs. Morley was in mauve ninon and a Gainsborough hat.
Yvonne says Mr. Morley is a Jew and made his money in I. D. B.'s,
which I suppose are some sort of stocks?" Neither of her brothers
offered to enlighten her, Rowsley because he was feeling
indolent, Val because he never said an unkind word to any one.
Isabel, who was enamoured of her own voice flowed on with little
delay: "If he really is a Jew, I can't think how she could marry
him; I wouldn't. Mrs. Morley can't be very happy or Laura
wouldn't go and talk to her. Laura is so sweet, she always sits
with people that other people run away from. Oh Val, did Major
Clowes tell you their news?" Isabel might refer to her father as
Jimmy and to Rowsley's commander as the Old Man, but she rarely
failed to give Bernard Clowes his correct prefix.

"No--is there any?"

"Only that they have some