If this sort of thing is to go on for a day or two longer, though he has been twenty years at the Rectory, Vance will be goaded into giving the doctor warning.
It is five minutes to twelve.

Valentine has skipped into the garden for the thirtieth time at least, to beg that Mrs.Joyce and the young ladies will repair to the dining-room, and be ready to set Mrs.Peckover and her little charge quite at their ease the moment they come in.

Mrs.
Joyce consents to this proposal at last, and takes his offered arm; touching it, however, very gingerly, and looking straight before her, while he talks, with an air of matronly dignity and virtuous reserve.
She is still convinced that Mr.Blyth's principles are extremely loose, and treats him as she might have treated Don Juan himself under similar circumstances.
They all go into the dining-room.

Mrs.Joyce and her daughters take their places, looking deliciously cool and neat in their bright morning dresses.

Leo drops down lazily on the rug inside the window, with a thump of his great heavy body that makes the glasses ring.