Excerpt: ...first place, what have you to do with tires?" "If we haven't had the punctures," was the reply, "we've heard enough about them." "Yes," said Anne. "It's been almost as bad as golf. 'What I did at the fourteenth hole.'" "In the second place," said George, "women adore irregularity. I can conceive nothing more delectable to the feminine appetite than the spectacle of Justice derailed. The apotheosis of our esteemed friend and late colleague, Mr. Albert Morgan, has afforded you two more indirect gratification than anything I can remember." "Gratification?" almost screamed the two girls. "Gratification," said George. "If I'd come home and said he'd pleaded guilty and been sent down for five years, you'd have been all depressed. In the third place—" "Monstrous," said Betty. "Don't laugh, Anne. As if the very thought of that man walking about free didn't make my blood boil." "It made it run cold last time," observed her husband. "Same principle as a geyser, I suppose.... Well, as I was saying, in the third place, what was Anthony to you?" "One of the best," said Betty stoutly. "That's what he was." Her husband wrinkled his nose. "My point is that he was a man's pal. He was nice to you because he'd been properly brought up, but..." Mournfully he passed his cup to be refilled. "Go on," said Betty silkily. "I wouldn't miss this for anything." Suspiciously George regarded her. "Well," he said defiantly, "he hadn't much use for women." Mrs. Alison turned to her sister-in-law and nodded scornfully at her husband. "Our wiseacre," she said. "All right," said the chauffeur. "Don't you believe me. He as good as told me so the day before he left, but I suppose that doesn't count." Gurgling with merriment, his sister rose from the table and, coming behind the speaker, set her hands on his shoulders. "And I suppose that's why he 'wished to leave the neighbourhood, '" she said, laying her cheek against his. "Betty and I were too much for him. Which reminds me, Bet, ...
