first moment we met. "We can talk about /that/ afterwards. It's only
that I hoped we were going to have a quiet two days, and now the
Atterby-Smiths are coming, yes, in half an hour. Five of them!"

"The Atterby-Smiths!" I exclaimed, for somehow I too felt
disappointed. "Who are the Atterby-Smiths?"

"Cousins of George's, his nearest relatives. They think he ought to
have left them everything. But he didn't, because he could never bear
the sight of them. You see his property was unentailed and he left it
all to me. Now the entire family is advancing to suggest that I should
leave it to them, as perhaps I might have done if they had not chosen
to come just now."

"Why didn't you put them off?" I asked.

"Because I couldn't," she answered with a little stamp of her foot,
"otherwise do you suppose they would have been here? They were far too
clever. They telegraphed after lunch giving the train by which they
were to arrive, but no address save Charing Cross. I thought of moving
up to the Berkeley Square house, but it was impossible in the time,
also I didn't know how to catch you. Oh! it's /most/ vexatious."

"Perhaps they are very nice," I suggested feebly.

"Nice! Wait till you have seen them. Besides if they had been angels I
did not want them just now. But how selfish I am! Come and have some
tea. And you can stop longer, that is if you live through the Atterby-
Smiths who are worse than both the Kendah tribes put together. Indeed
I wish old Harut were coming instead. I should like to see Harut