You have only got to shout for my man, and tell him whether you will have tea, coffee, or chocolate, any time you wake." "I shall be about by six, Doctor; five is my general hour, but as it is past one now I dare say I shall be able to sleep on for an hour later, especially as there is nothing to do." "You can go round the hospital with me, if you like," the Doctor said, "if you will promise not to make a dozen suggestions for the improvement of things in general." Isobel Hannay came down to breakfast in high spirits upon the morning of the races.

The dinner had gone off excellently.

The dinner table, with its softly shaded lamps, and the Doctor's arrangements of the flowers, had been, she thought, perfection, and everything had passed off without a hitch.

Her duties as a hostess had been much lighter than she had anticipated.

Mrs.Hunter was a very pleasant, motherly woman, and the girls, who had only come out from England four months before, were fresh and unaffected, and the other people had all been pleasant and chatty.
Altogether, she felt that her first dinner party had been a great success.
She was looking forward now with pleasant anticipation to the day.