This time her approach was heralded by a snatch of song.
"I hope you'll excuse my being gone so long," she smiled, as she entered the room where her two guests sat decorously face to face at the chess-table.
"Well, you know you said you'd be gone ten minutes," Arkwright reminded her, politely.
"Yes, I know I did." And Billy, to her credit, did not even smile at the man who did not know ten minutes from fifty..