Gees shook his head and glanced at his wrist watch.
“I can’t,” he said. “D’you know, we’ve been stuffing ourselves and getting all contented over it, and I ought to have been at the rectory a good hour and a half ago? Too late, now— I’ll roll along and see if Perivale’s free for a talk after dinner— and heaven help me to face Churchill after missing the lunch he probably tried to keep hot for me!”
“The rectory, eh?” Norris observed. “Well, the rector is one of the best, but— just between ourselves, Mr. Green— nobody in the place can stand that new wife of his. Infatuation, I’d call it, on his part.”
“But there’s nothing to be said against her?” Gees urged. Norris shook his head. “If my daughter went about painted and powdered like that woman, she’d feel the flat of my hand, grown-up tho
