"
"I saw you and Vera come back," said Lady Blonze, "but I didn't see the
Klammersteins. Did you put them down in the village?"
"No," said Skatterly shortly.
"But where are they? Where did you leave them?"
"We left them on Slogberry Moor," said Vera calmly.
"On Slogberry Moor? Why, it's more than thirty miles away! How are they
going to get back?"
"We didn't stop to consider that," said Skatterly; "we asked them to get
out for a moment, on the pretence that the car had stuck, and then we
dashed off full speed and left them there."
"But how dare you do such a thing? It's most inhuman! Why, it's been
snowing for the last hour."
"I expect there'll be a cottage or farmhouse somewhere if they walk a
mile or two."
"But why on earth have you done it?"
The question came in a chorus of indignant bewilderment.
"_That_ would be telling what our characters are meant to be," said Vera.
"Didn't I warn you?" said Sir Nicholas tragically to his wife.
"It's something to do with Spanish history; we don't mind giving you that
clue," said Skatterly, helping himself cheerfully to salad, and then
Bertie van Tahn broke forth into peals of joyous laughter.
"I've got it! Ferdinand and Isabella deporting the Jews! Oh, lovely!
Those two have certainly won the prize; we shan't get anything to beat
that for thoroughness."
Lady Blonze's Christmas party was talked about and written about to an
extent that she had not anticipated in her most ambitious moments.
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