The London visitors found the fixed routine of life in a country house monotonous and colourless, and were looking forward to the termination of their visit.

The life they had led for the past fortnight was not their way of life.

They met each morning for breakfast at nine o'clock--Miss Heredith was a stickler for the mid-Victorian etiquette of everybody sitting down together at the breakfast table.

After breakfast the men wandered off to their own devices for killing time: some to play a round of golf, others to go shooting or fishing, generally not reappearing until dinner-time.

After dinner they played billiards or auction bridge, and the ladies knitted war socks or sustained themselves till bedtime with copious draughts of the mild stimulant supplied by their favourite lady novelists.