He went on talking to Mrs. Harter about Cairo, and the people there whom he had known, and whom he took it for granted that she had known also. Later on, I learned that the weakness of Mr. Leeds was to have known everybody. He is a young-looking man for his years, and people are always astonished, in a gratifying way, when he claims acquaintance with the celebrities of forty years ago. He is exactly the kind of man to whom one would expect Mrs. Harter’s type to make a strong appeal, and he addressed his conversation almost exclusively to her. When Mrs. Leeds said, “How are we all goin’?” there was the usual pause, followed by the usual demonstrations. “Will you come in the Mercedes with me, Lady Annabel, and Sir Miles? Hector,” said Mrs. Leeds to her husband, “will you take Lady Flower in the two-seater?” She did not make her suggestions with any assurance, and Lady Annabel, while acquiescing graciously as to the place allotted to her, seemed faintly amused. She said afterward that these things require a great deal of experience--which indeed is quite true--and that personally she had always instructed the A. D. C.s beforehand, and left nothing to chance. “I can seat three people,” said General Kendal. “Not more. The springs, you know--and the hill up to Berry Down is a stiff pull.” “You’d better let me sit in front with you, Puppa,” Mrs. Kendal said firmly. “Then I can keep my eyes open. If one hasn’t been driving very long,” she explained to the rest of us, “one is liable to get fussed. I always say to my husband, at critical moments, ‘Don’t get fussed, dear. Whatever you do, keep your head, and don’t allow yourself to get fussed.’” “But this won’t do at all--we must separate relations!” cried Leeds. “We can’t all go about in family groups, like the Ark, or whatever it was. Might as well stay at home as do that.” “I certainly think there’s more sense in staying at home and eating one’s food in comfort, than dragging it out of doors and eating it under the most miserable conditions imaginable, for no conceivable reason--” said General Kendal suddenly and strongly. Everyone looked a little disconcerted, and Dolly Kendal said in a determined tone that picnics were great fun, if one took the rough with the smooth and didn’t _mind_ things. “Why not let’s walk--some of us?” Bill Patch suggested. “It’s not more than a mile or so, through the woods.” “No need to walk. There are plenty of conveyances,” said Leeds, in rather an offended way. “Well, who’ll go in the second car?” cried Mrs. Leeds. “Let me see--Miss Kendal, Captain Patch, Major Ambrey--and what about you, Mrs. Fazackerly?” “I should love to,” said Mrs. Fazackerly. “That leaves the other Miss Kendal, and Mrs. Harter and Mrs. Kendal, oh, and Mrs. Ambrey--” She began to look rather helpless again. “My two-seater is here,” suggested Christopher. “Oh, but do let some of us walk. It would be so nice to walk,” Sallie declared.