“Either will suit me,” the Earl replied. “Have you any preference, Harry?”
Harry shook his head and Burrows opened one of the bottles deftly and filled four glasses.
He gave one to Dorina, walked to the bed to give one to the Earl, the third went to Harry and lastly he gave a glass to Jarvis and left the room.
Raising his glass, Jarvis proposed,
“To Oscar! May you continue to flourish and may you always be as successful in life in the future as you have been in the past!”
“Thank you – ” the Earl had begun to say.
At that moment, making them all start in surprise, a huge black bird suddenly appeared, flying wildly around the room.
Afterwards Dorina could only think it had come from beneath Jarvis’s travelling coat, having appeared, as it were, from nowhere.
It was a large ugly bird,
