"No" she said "who could? I was so vexed."
"I would only say it to you my dear" Mr Pomfret announced "but the boy must have gone to--'s" and he gave the name of a shop which extensively advertised cheap engagement hoops.
She raised her eyes to his from the caviar with reluctance and a charming smile.
"One has to be so careful never to butt in" she explained "or rather, and am I being wicked, never to seem that one is arranging their little affairs for them. I tried to make him give dear Mary a solitaire darling Mother left me in her will and that somehow I've not had the heart to sell." She now looked down at her plate again and went on unhurriedly eating caviar. Then she squeezed some more lemon with an entrancing grimace of alarm, presumably lest a drop lodge in the corner of an eye. "How delicious and good this is" she sighed.
"And Philip wouldn't have it?" he asked.
"Philip simply wouldn't" she confirmed.
There was a pause.
"Then I had so hoped" she calmly went on at last "for you know what he is about family feelings-well I don't say this ring of Mother's was enormously valuable or of course it would have gone long before now, one can't go round London barefoot after all-but in a way the thing's an heirloom and he'd only have had to get it lined because of course Mother had such small bones."
"You don't think Mary's fingers are like bananas?"
"John!" she screamed, eyeing him in alarm. "I don't find that funny do you!"
"Well all right then" he said. "But what are we to do about this ring he's given her?"
"Doesn't she like it?"
"You know how you felt just now yourself Jane."
"Oh yes but we mustn't make everything more difficult for them dear. You realize it's not going to be easy for those two sweet loves our being such old friends you and I. But has Mary actually put it into words about the thing?"
"No. How could she?"
"She's wonderful! So d'you think we should be absolutely wise to interfere?"
"Yet you can't let her walk round with that on her left hand Jane."
Mrs Weatherby faced him squarely at this.
"Wait a moment John please" she said in a level voice. "Exactly what have you on your mind?"
"Awkward" he grumbled. "Damned awkward! It's simply as an old friend t feel that it may reflect on you and yours" he said.
She pushed away from in front of her the plate which by now was dry as if a cat had licked it.
"But my dear" she cried "on me? After all I've done? When he wouldn't have darling Mother's which I'm almost sure Mary has never even seen. You mean poor Philip's one's too cheap?"
"I do."
"I don't call fifteen guineas cheap."
"Not for what he got."
"Oh my dear I can't think when I've been so upset in my life" she gasped but not altogether convincingly. He laid a hand over hers which she did not withdraw.
"To do a thing like that might come back on us both" he said.
"You mean our mends-?"
"Yes."
"What does Liz say?" she asked.
"I don't know for the very simple reason that I haven't inquired" he answered. "And I shan't."
"So you're just guessing, is that it John?"
"I've lived long enough in our lot not to have to asks."
He proceeded to serve Mrs Weatherby with lobster mayonnaise.
"Well if it all doesn't come back on my poor shoulders" she murmured. "When I've done nothing but my best."
"All the same Jane we must find something."
"But oh they're so independent" she wailed.
"Can't he give her another?"
"What with?"
"How d'you mean Jane, what with? You could sell the solitaire couldn't you and let him have the proceeds?"
"And he does go on so, that they must live on what they earn."
"Well my dear" he said "we haven't been into that together yet have we? The last time you'd just come from seeing Thicknesse and didn't feel like it if you remember."
"No more I do now John."
"All right. I don't wish to press you. But we shall have to take some step about this engagement ring or we might be a laughingstock."
"John" she announced after a pause "sometimes I feel rather inclined to say 'damn the children, they're more trouble than they're worth.'"
"Well I don't know about that Jane."
"Don't you? But why can't they do things the way we did?"
"Money I suppose. Besides I wouldn't care for 'em to get into the mess we got into."
"Now darling you're not to speak so of what is still absolutely sacred to me. How delicious this lobster is! Where did you go to find it?" He told her.
She ate with evident appreciation.
"You don't care for Philip's hats either I hear?" she said sweetly.
"No more I do" Mr Pomfret replied.
"On the whole wouldn't you say John it's rather best for them to make their own mistakes?"
"It all depends."
"In what way dear?"
He turned very white.
"I don't want us to look ridiculous Jane!"
She raised her eyebrows and stared coolly at him.
"I'm not sure what you mean?" she said.
In a trembling voice, with an obvious and complete loss of temper he cried all at once "By trying to stop this marriage by saying as I'm told you are that Philip is my son."
She put knife and fork carefully down on the plate, turned her face half away from him, closed her eyes and waited in silence. Within twenty seconds two great tears had slipped from beneath black lashes and were on their way over her full cheeks, shortly followed by others. But she made no sound.
He blew his nose loudly, his colour began to come back. He watched her. Soon his breathing became normal again.
"I'm sorry" he muttered at last.
"Excuse me" she said getting up from the table and hastened out of the room. He waited. He hung his head to listen, perhaps for the front door. When the bathroom lock clicked he appeared to relax.
Eventually she returned tike a ship in full sail. He stood as she came in the door. She stopped close enough to hit him.
"How dare you!!" she hissed.
"Oh my dear I do apologize" he said and wrung his hands. "Last thing in the world I wished to blurt out."
"How dare you John!"
"Look here sit down once more Jane. That silly remark slipped from me I swear it!"
"I oughtn't to stay here another minute" she announced and sat in her place. He seated himself. He mopped at his face with a handkerchief. She watched her plate of lobster mayonnaise. "This is Liz's doing" she added.
"No Jane don't" he implored.
"Well that was her wasn't it?"
"Yes I suppose so."
She took up knife and fork again, began to push the food around the plate.
"I say it for your own good John" she said. "You should have nothing more to do with that young woman before she ruins you!"
"Now Jane" he cried raising a glass to his lips with trembling hands.
"Because when you allow the squalid girls you choose for your wicked selfish pleasures to interfere between my son and your girl then you aren't fit."
"And Richard Abbot?" he muttered.
"Is one of nature's gentlemen" she royally replied.
"Now not another word of this or I leave at once never to step over your doorstep again."
After which the conversation limped for some time, then she laughed and in another thirty minutes he tried a laugh and in the end as old friends they parted early without another mention of the children.
A WEEK later Miss Jennings did something she had never done before, she asked Richard Abbot round for a drink.
"Have you heard about poor darling John?" she said and giggled. "His doctor's told him he's got a touch of this awful diabetes."
"Good Lord, sorry to learn that."
She giggled again.
"No one knows. Of course he toId me. I'm so very wortied for him. Isn't it merciful they discovered about insulin in time?"