And she narrated the circumstances of the breakdown.
Jimmy listened with sympathetic attention.
“Hard luck,” he vouchsafed. “If it’s going to take some time, I’ll run you back in my car after lunch.”
A gong sounded at that moment and they all went in. Bundle observed Jimmy covertly. She thought she had noticed an unusual note of exultance in his voice. She had the feeling that things had gone well.
After lunch they took a polite leave of Lady Coote, and Jimmy volunteered to run them down to the garage in his car. As soon as they had started the same word burst simultaneously from both girls’ lips:
“Well?”
Jimmy chose to be provoking.
“Well?”
“Oh, pretty hearty, thanks. Slight indigestion owing to overindulgence in dry biscuits.”
“But what has happened?”
“I tell you. Devotion to the cause made me eat too many dry biscuits. But did our hero flinch? No, he did not.”
“Oh, Jimmy,” said Loraine reproachfully, and he softened.
“What do you really want to know?”
“Oh, everything. Didn’t we do it well? I mean, the way we kept Pongo and Terence O’Rourke in play.”