"Shall I go and ask him if you can't put it off till after dinner?" "Oh, no, thanks very much. I'm sure Lord Marshmoreton wouldn't dream of it." She passed on with a pleasant smile. When he had recovered from the effect of this Reggie proceeded slowly to the upper level to meet his step-mother. "Hullo, mater. Pretty fit and so forth? What did you want to see me about?" "Well, Reggie, what is the news?" "Eh? What? News? Didn't you get hold of a paper at breakfast? Nothing much in it. Tam Duggan beat Alec Fraser three up and two to play at Prestwick. I didn't notice anything else much. There's a new musical comedy at the Regal. Opened last night, and seems to be just like mother makes. The Morning Post gave it a topping notice. I must trickle up to town and see it some time this week." Lady Caroline frowned. This slowness in the uptake, coming so soon after her brother's inattention, displeased her. "No, no, no. I mean you and Maud have been talking to each other for quite a long time, and she seemed very interested in what you were saying. I hoped you might have some good news for me." Reggie's face brightened. He caught her drift. "Oh, ah, yes, I see what you mean. No, there wasn't anything of that sort or shape or order." "What were you saying to her, then, that interested her so much?" "I was explaining how I landed dead on the pin with my spoon out of a sand-trap at the eleventh hole yesterday. It certainly was a pretty ripe shot, considering. I'd sliced into this baby bunker, don't you know; I simply can't keep 'em straight with the iron nowadays--and there the pill was, grinning up at me from the sand. Of course, strictly speaking, I ought to have used a niblick, but--" "Do you mean to say, Reggie, that, with such an excellent opportunity, you did not ask Maud to marry you?" "I see what you mean. Well, as a matter of absolute fact, I, as it were, didn't." Lady Caroline uttered a wordless sound. "By the way, mater," said Reggie, "I forgot to tell you about that.