'See heah! Would this be the Ordeh of the Gyartah?' one said, pointing.
'I presoom likely. No! The Garter has "_Honey swore_"--I know that much. This is "Tria juncta" something.'
'Oh, what's that cunning little copper cross with "For Valurr"?' a third cried.
'Say! Look at here!' said the young man at the bookcase. 'Here's a first edition of _Handley Cross_ and a Beewick's _Birds_ right next to it--just like so many best sellers. Look, Maidie!'
The girl beneath the picture half turned her body but not her eyes.
'You don't tell _me_!' she said slowly. 'Their women amounted to something after all.'
'But Woman's scope, and outlook was vurry limmutted in those days,' one of the matrons put in, from the piano.
'Limmutted? For _her_? If they whurr, I guess she was the limmut. Who was she? Peters, whurr's the cat'log?'
A thin butler, in charge of two footmen removing the tea-batteries, slid to a table and handed her a blue-and-qilt book. He was button-holed by one of the men behind the harp, who wished to get a telephone call through to Edinburgh.
'The local office shuts at six,' said Peters. 'But I can get through to'--he named some town--'in ten minutes, sir.'
'That suits me. You'll find me here when you've hitched up. Oh, say, Peters! We--Mister Olpherts an' me--ain't goin' by that early morning train to-morrow--but the other one--on the other line--whatever they call it.'
'The nine twenty-seven, sir. Yes, sir. Early breakfast will be at half-past eight and the car will be at the door at nine.'
'Peters!' an imperious young voice called. 'What's the matteh with Lord Marshalton's Ordeh of the Gyartah? We cyan't find it anyweah.'
'Well, miss, I _have_ heard that that Order is usually returned to His Majesty on the death of the holder. Yes, miss.' Then in a whisper to a footman, 'More butter for the pop-corn in King Charles's Corner.' He stopped behind my chair. 'Your room is Number Eleven, sir. May I trouble you for your keys?'
He left the room with a six-year-old maiden called Alice who had announced she would not go to bed ''less Peter, Peter, Punkin-eater takes me--so there!'
He very kindly looked in on me for a moment as I was dressing for dinner. 'Not at all, sir,' he replied to some compliment I paid him. 'I valeted the late Lord Marshalton for fifteen years. He was very abrupt in his movements, sir. As a rule I never received more than an hour's notice of a journey. We used to go to Syria frequently. I have been twice to Babylon. Mr. and Mrs. Zigler's requirements are, comparatively speaking, few.'