What on earth had Mrs.
Lascelles said?
"Going away ?" I asked, as a mere preliminary, and I shut the door behind me.

Bob followed the action with raised eyebrows, then flung me the shortest possible affirmative, as he bent once more over the suit-case on the bed.
But in a few seconds he looked up.
"Anything I can do for you, Clephane ?" "That depends where you are going." Bob went on packing with a smile.

I guessed where he was going.

"I thought there might be something pressing," he remarked, without looking up again.
"There is," said I."There is something you can do for me on the spot.
You can try to believe that I have not meant to be quite such a skunk as I may have seemed--to you," I was on the point of adding, but I stopped short of that advisedly, as I thought of Mrs.Lascelles also.
"Oh, that's all right," said Bob, in a would-be airy tone that carried its own contradiction.

"All's fair, according to the proverb; I no more blame you than you would have blamed me.