A most discreet boy of fourteen, and already Pollyooly's warm friend, he was the last person to spoil the sport; and at the end of the fortnight she had slipped away and returned by motor car to her post of housekeeper to the Honourable John Ruffin and Mr.Gedge-Tomkins in the King's Bench Walk.
Ignorant of the fact that Lady Marion Ricksborough had fled a fortnight previously, the detectives, both official and private, had taken up the search for her from the moment of Pollyooly's disappearance from the Court.

It is hardly a matter for wonder that they did not go far along a trail which had been cold for a fortnight.
As he said, the Honourable John Ruffin had believed the duchess to be hiding out of England; and he showed himself unfeignedly pleased to see her.

He put her in his most comfortable chair, made her take off her hat, and said: "Now, I'll make you some tea." The Honourable John Ruffin went to the kitchen; the duchess rose restlessly and followed him.

As he made the tea he lectured her on the importance of making it not only with boiling water, but with water which had not been boiling for more than a quarter of a minute, and that poured on to a fine China tea in a warmed pot without taking the kettle right off the stove.
The rebellious duchess, impatient to tell him the object of her visit, made several faces at him; and twice she said contemptuously: "You and your old tea!" But when she came to drink it, she admitted handsomely that it was better than she could have made it herself.
She drank it; grew suddenly serious, and said: "John, I'm in a mess, and I've come to you for help." "It is yours to the half of my fortune--at present about fourteen shillings," said the Honourable John Ruffin warmly.
"Well, I didn't take Marion abroad," said the duchess.

"They always look abroad for people who bolt.