And Joan held him with her smile and led him from one anecdote to another.
Finally, with no one realized how supreme an effort, Mrs.Harley came to the point.

As a rule she never came to points.
"Geordie," she said, seizing a pause, "you may run along now, dear, and take a walk.

It will do you good to get a little exercise before dinner.

I want to be alone with Joan for a while." And before Joan could swing the conversation off at a tangent the faithful and obedient St.Bernard was on his feet, ready and willing to ramble whichever way he was told to go.

With unconscious dignity and a guilelessness utterly unknown to drawing-rooms he bent over Joan's reluctant hand and said, "Thank you for being so kind to me," laid a hearty kiss on his wife's cheek and went.
"And now, darling," said Mrs.Harley, settling into her chair with an air of natural triumph, "tell me where Martin is and how long he's going to be away and all about everything." These were precisely the questions that Joan had worked so hard and skilfully to dodge.