"Dear me, it is nearly half-past six! I must go.

Tufnell is _so_ dilatory when quickness is requisite." "Did you remind Violet about the necklace ?" asked Phil, as his aunt turned to leave the library.
"Yes.

She said she would send it down in the morning, before Vincent leaves." Phil nodded, and returned to his letters.

Miss Heredith left the room, and proceeded along the corridor to the big dining-room.

An elderly man servant, grey and clean-shaven, permitted a faint deferential smile to appear on his features as she entered.
"Is everything quite right, Tufnell ?" she asked.
Tufnell, the staid old butler, who had inherited his place from his father, bowed gravely, and answered decorously: "Everything is quite right, ma'am." Miss Heredith walked slowly round the spacious table, adjusting a knife here, a fork there, and giving an added touch to the table decorations.
There was not the slightest necessity for her to do so, because the appointments were as perfect as they could be made by the hands of old servants who knew their mistress and her ways thoroughly.