And then
when it was time to come here, Mr Georgie would have remembered that
the party was Hightum not Tightum, and there was Miss Bracely not in
Hightum at all, nor even Tightum, in my opinion, but Scrub. No doubt
she said to him, 'Is it a very grand sort of party, Mr Pillson?' and he
couldn't do other than reply, for we all received notice that it was
Hightum--mine came about twelve--he couldn't do other than reply, 'Yes,
Miss Bracely, it is.' 'Good gracious me,' she would say, 'and I've only
got this old rag on. I must go back to the Ambermere Arms, and tell my
maid--for she brought a maid in that second motor--and tell my maid to
put me out something tidy.' 'But that will be a great bother for you,'
he would say, or something of that sort, for I don't pretend to know
what he actually did say, and she would reply, 'Oh Mr Pillson, but I
must put on something tidy, and it would be so kind of you, if you
would wait for me, while I do that, and let us go together.' That's
what _she_ said."
Mrs Weston made a sign to her gardener to proceed, wishing to leave the
stage at the moment of climax.
"And that's why they're both late," she said, and was whirled away in
the direction of the bowling-green.
The minutes went on, and still nobody appeared who could possibly have
accounted for the three-lined whip of Hightums, but by degrees Lucia,
who had utterly failed to decoy Lady Ambermere into the place of
thrones, began to notice a certain thinning on her lawns.
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