The Talking-Out of Tarrington

“Heavens!” exclaimed the aunt of Clovis, “here’s someone I know bearing down on us. I can’t remember his name, but he lunched with us once in town. Tarrington⁠—yes, that’s it. He’s heard of the picnic I’m giving for the princess, and he’ll cling to me like a lifebelt till I give him an invitation; then he’ll ask if he may bring all his wives and mothers and sisters with him. That’s the worst of these small watering-places; one can’t escape from anybody.”

“I’ll fight a rearguard action for you if you like to do a bolt now,” volunteered Clovis; “you’ve a clear ten yards start if you don’t lose time.”

The aunt of Clovis responded gamely to the suggestion, and churned away like a Nile steamer, with a long brown ripple of Pekingese spaniel trailing in her wake.

“Pretend you don’t know him,” was her parting advice, tinged with the reckless courage of the noncombatant.