It was a cable taken down by Markins over the telephone and it announced the imminent return of Douglas Grace. Flossie was delighted. He was, she repeated emphatically, her Favourite Nephew. ‘So sweet always to his old aunt. We had such high old times together in London before the war.’ Douglas was to come straight to Mount Moon. As a schoolboy he had spent all his holidays there. ‘It’s his home,’ said Flossie emphatically. His father had been killed in 1918 and his mother had died some three years ago when Douglas was taking a post-graduate engineering course at Heidelberg. ‘So he’s only got his old Auntie,’ said Flossie. ‘Your uncle says that if he’s demobilized he shall stay here as a salaried cadet. We don’t know how badly he’s been hurt, of course.’ Fabian asked where Douglas had been wounded. ‘A muscular wound,’ said Flossie evasively and then added, ‘the gluteus maximus,’ and was deeply offended when Fabian laughed. But she was too excited to remain long in a huff and Fabian saw that she hovered on the edge of a confidence. ‘Isn’t it fun,’ she exclaimed, letting her lips fly apart over her prominent teeth, ‘that Ursy and Douglas should meet! My little ADC and my Favourite Nephew. And you, of course, Fab. I’ve told Ursy so much about Douglas that she feels she knows him already.’ Here Flossie gave Fabian a very sharp gimlet-like glance. He came out, shut the workroom door and locked it. He felt a cold jolt of apprehension in the pit of his stomach, a dreadful turning over. Flossie took his arm and walked him along the passage. ‘You’ll call me a silly romantic old thing,’ she began and even in his distress he found time to reflect how irritating she was when she playfully assumed octogenarian whimsies. ‘It’s only a little dream, of course,’ she continued, ‘but it would make me so happy if they should come together. It’s always been a little plot of poor old Floosie’s. Now, if I was a French guardian and aunt…’ She gave Fabian’s arm a little squeeze. ‘Ah, well,’ she said, ‘we’ll see.’ He received another gimlet-like glance. ‘He’ll be very good for you, Fab,’ she said firmly. ‘He’s so sane and vigorous. Take you out of yourself. Ha!’