"No, I didn't, not with you asking me to let him rent the place, and saying he was a relation of yours. But if I'd known what sort of an influence he was going to be on you, and no more related to you than the man in the moon."

"Well, that's where you're wrong, because he is related to me," interrupted Wally. "I forget just how it goes, but I know we've got the same great-great-grandfather. Or am I wrong? There may have been three greats, not that it matters."

"Ancestors," said Vicky.

Ermyntrude refused to follow a false trail she quite clearly perceived. "It's no relationship at all to my way of thinking, and you know very well that isn't what I've got against Harold White, however hard you may try to turn the subject."

"The Bawtrys are stuffy," said Vicky suddenly.

"Well, they are a bit," confessed her mother. "But it's something to get the best people to come just for a friendly dinner-party, and I don't mind telling you, lovey, that they never have before."

"And the Derings are stuffy.,

"Not Lady Dering. She's a good sort, and always was, and she's behaved to me more like a lady than a lot of others I could name."

"And Hugh Dering is stuffy," said Vicky obstinately. "It's going to be a lousy party."

"Not with the Prince," said Ermyntrude.

"If anyone wants to know what I think, which I don't suppose they do," interpolated Wally, "this Prince of yours will just about put the finishing touch to it. However, it's nothing: to do with me, and all I say is, don't expect me to entertain him!"

Ermyntrude looked a little perturbed. "But, Wally, you'll have to help entertain him! Now, don't be tiresome, there's a dear! You know we arranged it all weeks ago, and honestly I know you'll like Alexis. Besides, you won't have to do much, except take him out shooting, like we said."