He was therefore somewhat disagreeable when he was woken from a deep sleep by his valet at his usual hour of eight o’clock.
His bath was all prepared for him on the hearthrug in his bedroom in front of the fire. Because he disliked the water getting cold, the Earl resisted an inclination to lie back against his pillows and rose from his bed.
Twenty minutes later he descended to the breakfast room to look with a jaundiced eye at the long row of silver dishes laid out on a side table.
He inspected them and, telling Barker to help him to the kidneys cooked in cream, he sat down at the breakfast table.
When the kidneys came, he waved them away and asked for a plain lamb chop.
When he had eaten, he began to feel better and told himself that the reason he was not feeling in his usual good h
