When I had recovered a bit, I said, "What do you mean by everything?"

"Well," he said, "for instance, I come up here every evening at seven
and--er--think for a few minutes."

"A few minutes?!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, a few minutes isn't long."

"But I always have my cocktail at a quarter past."

"You could postpone it."

"And Ponsonby likes us to start dinner at seven-thirty."

"What on earth has Ponsonby to do with it?"

"Well, he likes to get off by nine, you know. I think he goes off and
plays bowls at the madhouse. You see, Reggie, old man, we have to study
Ponsonby a little. He's always on the verge of giving notice--in fact,
it was only by coaxing him on one or two occasions that we got him to
stay on--and he's such a treasure that I don't know what we should do
if we lost him. But, if you think that I ought to stay longer----?"

"Certainly I do. You ought to do a thing like this properly, or not at
all."