ABSTRACT
When she had ended her repast with two hot-house nectarines, her brother was announced, to her great vexation. She never saw Ronnie very willingly and now less willingly than ever, for his position with regard to her and her children was one which could not have made him a persona grata even had he been less outspoken and uncompromising than he was. At the present moment he was especially unwelcome to her; but as he had come upstairs disregarding the servants’ endeavours to induce him to wait while they inquired their mistress’s pleasure, he had entered the room before she had quite finished her second nec 209tarine, and it was impossible to order him to go away as he came. He had come on business.
