_In the Morning Room._ TIME--_Sunday morning; just after breakfast._
_Captain Thicknesse_ (_outside, to_ TREDWELL). Dogcart round, eh? everything in? All right--shan't be a minute. (_Entering._) Hallo, Pilliner, you all alone here? (_He looks round disconcertedly._) Don't happen to have seen Lady Maisie about?
_Pilliner._ Let me see--she _was_ here a little while ago, I fancy.... Why? Do you want her?
_Captain Thicknesse._ No--only to say good-bye and that. I'm just off.
_Pilliner._ Off? To-day! You don't mean to tell me your chief is such an inconsiderate old ruffian as to expect you to travel back to your Tommies on the Sabbath! You could wait till to-morrow if you _wanted_ to. Come now!
_Captain Thicknesse._ Perhaps--only, you see, I _don't_ want to.
_Pilliner._ Well, tastes differ. I shouldn't call a cross-country journey in a slow train, with unlimited opportunities of studying the company's bye-laws and traffic arrangements at several admirably ventilated junctions, the ideal method of spending a cheery Sunday, myself, that's all.
_Captain Thicknesse_ (_gloomily_). Dare say it will be about as cheery as stoppin' on here, if it comes to that.
_Pilliner._ I admit we were most of us a wee bit chippy at breakfast. The bard conversed--I will say _that_ for him--but he seemed to diffuse a gloom somehow. Shut you up once or twice in a manner that might almost be described as damned offensive.
_Captain Thicknesse._ Don't know what you all saw in what he said that was so amusin'. Confounded rude _I_ thought it!
_Pilliner._ Don't think anyone _was_ amused--unless it was Lady Maisie. By the way, he might perhaps have selected a happier topic to hold forth to Sir Rupert on than the scandalous indifference of large landowners to the condition of the rural labourer. Poor dear old boy, he stood it wonderfully, considering. Pity Lady Cantire breakfasted upstairs; she'd have enjoyed herself. However, he had a very good audience in little Lady Maisie.
_Captain Thicknesse._ I do hate a chap that jaws at breakfast.... _Where_ did you say she was?
_Lady Maisie's voice_ (_outside, in conservatory_). Yes, you really ought to see the orangery and the Elizabethan garden, Mr. Blair. If you will be on the terrace in about five minutes, I could take you round myself. I must go and see if I can get the keys first.