Now I'm going to be Mrs Napper, when
the Littlehampton season comes round, I'm going in exclusively for
smartness and fashion."
Mavis making as if she would go, and the disturbance not being
finally quelled, Miss Meakin begged Mavis to stay to lunch. She
repeatedly insisted on the word lunch, as if it conveyed a social
distinction in the speaker.
Mavis had got as far as the door, when it burst open and an elderly
woman of considerable avoirdupois broke into the room, to sink
helplessly upon a flimsy chair which creaked ominously with its
burden.
Miss Meakin introduced this person to Mavis as her aunt, Mrs
Scatchard, and reminded the latter how Mavis had rescued her niece
from the clutches of the bogus hospital nurse in Victoria Street so
many months back.
"That you should call today of all days!" moaned the perspiring Mrs
Scatchard.
"Why not today?" asked her niece innocently.
"The day I'm disgraced to the neighbourhood by a 'visitor' being
turned out of doors."
"I knew nothing of it," protested Miss Meakin.
"And Mr Scatchard being a government official, as you might say."
"Indeed!" remarked Mavis, who was itching to be off.
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