His question was addressed to the Arbuthnot ladies in general. Mrs. Arbuthnot said it was a relation of hers but not of her sister-in-law’s, at least she thought not; and then began to laugh in a way which in any less attractive woman would have been giggling. Francis, glancing at Miss Arbuthnot, saw that her large masculine face was bright red and wondered idly if the author was her illegitimate brother.
“I wrote to him when I was in the Atlantic, the winter before Dunkirk,” said Mr. Wickham, “but he never answered.”
“I did,” said Miss Arbuthnot indignantly. “I wrote to the address you gave and told you that the lesser clodhopper has been seen as far north as Aberdeathly. In fact, I saw one there myself when I was visiting Christopher and Elsa Hornby.”
“We lost a lot of our mail that w
