That is to say, that there was lunch for Mrs.Falbe and anybody else who happened to be there at half-past one; tea in Mrs.Falbe's well-liked sitting-room at five, and dinner at eight.

These meals--Mrs.Falbe always breakfasted in her bedroom--were served with quiet decorum.

Apart from them, anybody who required anything consulted the cook personally.

Hermann, for instance, would have spent the morning at his piano in the vast studio at the back of their house in Maidstone Crescent, and not arrived at the fact that it was lunch time till perhaps three in the afternoon.

Unless then he settled to do without lunch altogether, he must forage for himself; or Sylvia, having to sing at a concert at eight, would return famished and exultant about ten; she would then proceed to provide herself, unless she supped elsewhere, with a plate of eggs and bacon, or anything else that was easily accessible.