Chapter Ten
Gussie was far more fond of Great-Aunt Honoria than the lady’s abrupt manners and unprepossessing appearance might strictly warrant. However, she did rather wish her esteemed ancestor would contrive to control her mischievous impulses a little better.
Breakfast proceeded at a docile pace and in a serene silence, Miss Frostell choosing to devote herself to the benefits of toast and coffee, declining for the moment to harangue Gussie any further about a prompt departure. Lord Maundevyle, as appeared to be his habit, was taciturn. Gussie, regarding him thoughtfully over her own repast, did not find his silence forbidding. Rather, he had an air of abstraction — coupled, admittedly, with a supreme indifference to company — that suggested his mind was simply elsewhere.
‘And what a
