A carriage with two fat horses, two fat servants, a fat poodle, and a fatter pug stood outside the door, and an old lady had bustled in and kissed the tea ladies very affably.
"Your young friend, Mr. Bullen, is extremely eccentric," she began, when Tom Eltham put in a word. "Very rich, do you say? An Australian millionaire? To be sure, that makes a difference. The vagaries of millionaires must be pardoned like those of genius, I suppose. And I'm glad to see that you girls are doing such good business. I always told your poor mother that the best thing was for you to show a little energy and work for yourselves."
Aunt Jane's memory was, like her stature, short.
"What, no champagne?" stuttered Uncle Bentley, who had arrived at the tea-rooms actually holding his young host by the arm. "No champagne, Eva? Must have champagne on an occasion like this. Here, let Jane's servants take this card round to my man at Walsingham House. Let 'em bring back a couple of cases. Do 'em good to work 'em out a bit."
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"UNCLE BENTLEY ARRIVED AT THE TEA-ROOMS ACTUALLY HOLDING HIS YOUNG HOST BY THE ARM."
The Eltham girls couldn't get over their astonishment and delight at meeting their brother Tom on his return from South Africa for the first time here; and the Harrow boy couldn't sufficiently express his admiration for his plucky little cousins' smart rooms, spiffin' tuck, and general jollity.
Tom Eltham had already managed to tell Eva what was his first and foremost object in coming home, and the young Australian lost no opportunity to make Muriel understand clearly that having once seen her he intended to see her very often again. She blushed and smiled with happiness, for somehow he seemed to her the most charming young man she had ever met.
If the luncheon and tea had been a failure at the C.C.T., at least the dinner was an enormous success. The family party was excessively gay, and the outside people were never for a moment allowed to feel themselves like outsiders, owing to the tea ladies' attention and tact. And it was with feelings of the utmost cordality and good-fellowship that all rose, on the invitation of Colonel Bently, to drink the solemn and heartfelt toast, "God Save the King."
