"Poor boy! whatever has he done? 'Behaviour' makes it sound as if it had
been something awful."

"We needn't go into it, I think."

"But you _are_ going into it, darling, all the time. Do you mean to keep
it up against him for ever?"

"I'm not keeping anything up. What Ralph Bevan does is no concern of
mine. Since I'm not to be inconvenienced by it--since Miss Madden has
come to my rescue so charmingly--I shall not give it another thought."

He turned to Barbara as to a change of subject. "Had you any
difficulty"--(his voice was measured and important)--"in finding your
way here?"

"None at all."

"Ah, that one-thirty train is excellent. Excellent. But if you had not
told the guard to stop at the Hill you would have been carried on to
Cheltenham. Which would have been very awkward for you. Very awkward
indeed."

"My dear Horatio, what did you suppose she _would_ do?"

"My dear Fanny, there are many things she might have done. She might
have got into the wrong coach at Paddington and been carried on to
Worcester."

"And that," said Barbara, "would have been much worse than Cheltenham."