A footman was markedly waiting at her elbow to get in a word edgeways.
"The carriage is round, my lady," he said.
Lady Thurso hastily finished an egg in aspic, with which she had begun lunch.
"Yes, my lady. It was ordered for a quarter-past two."
Lady Thurso pressed her fingers against her eyelids for a moment.
"I can't remember," she said. "Go to my room quickly, and bring me a large blue engagement-book--the one with 'Where am I?' written on it. And bring me anything--cold mutton or bread and cheese."
"And I am so hungry!" she cried. "And it is exceedingly likely I shall have to fly off without any lunch. Oh, if I were only unemployed for two hours, I should spend one in eating! Besides, I had no breakfast, and is one egg in aspic sufficient for an active female until tea-time?"
"It wouldn't be for this one," she said. "But why no breakfast? Is that a new plan?"
"New? No; it's as old as the hills, for that delightful old Professor, the one like a pink bear at the British Museum, told me the other day----"
"Not at all. When one goes out to lunch, he is the one person in the room whom everybody knows. Don't interrupt. He told me that the ancient Egyptians never had any breakfast, because the word for breakfast is the same as afternoon, or something of the sort--and think how marvellous they were! I've been an ancient Egyptian for nearly a fortnight."
"But they never had motor-cars," said Jim. "It may have been that."
"Oh, how flippant! How could we ever get anywhere without them, considering how frequently we don't, even with them? Ah, now for the book!"
Catherine turned hurriedly over the pages of "Where am I?" and found where she was. She breathed a sigh of relief as she closed it again.
"Thank Heaven!" she said, "because otherwise I really shouldn't have tasted food since yesterday until tea-time. Send the carriage back, please. It's only the bazaar at St. Ursula's, and I told them I almost certainly couldn't go. Besides, the Princess is opening it, so I needn't. I should only have to stand up and curtsey, and agree that the day is vile."
"I know; but one can't argue. Oh, the carriage must come back in twenty minutes," she added to the footman.
Jim helped himself largely to the next course.