Better pick up Pug again, Miss Lyall, till she has
gone by. And here is Colonel Boucher. If he had brought his bull-dogs,
I should have asked him to take them away again. I should like a cup of
tea, Miss Lyall, with plenty of milk in it, and not too strong. You
know how I like my tea. And a biscuit or something for Pug, with a
little cream in a saucer or anything that's handy."
"Won't you come into the smoking-parlour, and have tea there, Lady
Ambermere?" asked Peppino.
"The smoking-parlour?" asked she. "How very strange to lay tea in a
smoking-room."
Peppino explained that nobody had in all probability used the
smoking-parlour to smoke in for five or six years.
"Oh, if that is so, I will come," said she. "Better bring Pug along,
too, Miss Lyall. There is a croquet-hoop. I am glad I saw it or I
should have stumbled over it perhaps. Oh, this is the smoking-parlour,
is it? Why do you have rushes on the floor? Put Pug in a chair, Miss
Lyall, or he may prick his paws. Books, too, I see. That one lying open
is an old one. It is Latin poetry. The library at The Hall is very
famous for its classical literature. The first Viscount collected it,
and it numbers many thousands of volumes."
"Indeed, it is the most wonderful library," said Peppino. "I can never
tear myself away from it, when I am at The Hall."
"I do not wonder. I am a great student myself and often spend a morning
there, do I not, Miss Lyall? You should have some new glass put in
those windows, Mr Lucas.
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