“Colin Keith is your wife’s brother, isn’t he?” said Mrs. Arbuthnot. “He has been so kind. I do so want to get settled and somewhere in the country so that my sister-in-law can have a garden and study birds. She adores birds. Have you any in these parts?”
Noel, such is the natural silliness of men, found this idiotic question from a pretty creature with appealing eyes very reasonable. He said he believed there were some quite rare birds in the neighbourhood, and he had heard of a golden-crested mippet on Fish Hill, but hadn’t the faintest idea what a golden-crested mippet was.
“I must tell my sister-in-law,” said his neighbour. “I do think birds are so dreadful, don’t you?”
She looked up at Noel much as Mrs. Brandon would have looked, giving him a conspiratorial glance which Lydia inter
