Auntie Robbo by Ann Scott-Moncrieff — Read

In the evening when Hector came down after his bath he found the drawing-room empty; he sat down cross-legged on the sheepskin rug in front of the fire and began his supper. From the dining-room, across the passage, came a murmur of conversation between Auntie Robbo and Merlissa Benck, still at dinner. By and by the murmur divided itself into two distinct voices, becoming shrill and staccato on the one hand and a deep growling grumble on the other.

There seemed to be a bit of an argument going on. Hector listened apprehensively. However, he felt there was nothing he could do about it, and he went on eating stolidly. Now there came intervals of painful silence, and then the voices would break out again in their respective keys, as if both ladies had been drawing breath, glaring at each other across the table, and then bursting forth again. During one of these pauses the dining-room door was snapped open and Auntie Robbo's voice came with great finality: "I tell you the whole thing is ridiculous, quite ridiculous," and presently she swept into the drawing-room ahead of Merlissa Benck.