Nobody made so many gaffes, yet no-one got out of them so well. To use
the lawyer's phrase, she used so many words that she managed to engulf
her own and her interlocutor's ideas. No-one, perhaps, had ever talked
so much nonsense seriously as she did that day, but the Rev. Byrne
Fraser said she was a remarkable woman, who had read and thought deeply.
Also he was enchanted with her interest in him, as everybody always was.
Edith thought she had heard Mr Mitchell saying something to the others
that interested her. She managed to get near him when the gentlemen
joined them in the studio, as they called the large room where there was
a stage, a piano, a parquet floor, and every possible arrangement for
amusement. Madame Frabelle moved quickly away, supposing that Edith
wished to speak to him for his sake, whereas really it was in order to
have repeated something she thought she had heard at lunch.
'Did I hear you saying anything about your old friend, Aylmer Ross?' she
asked.
'Yes, indeed. Haven't you heard? The poor fellow has been wounded. He
was taken into hospital at once, fortunately, and he's getting better,
and is going to be brought home almost immediately, to the same old
house in Jermyn Street.
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