"No," replied Mrs. Pettifer. "Robert, you must do something."
Robert Pettifer jumped in his chair.
"I, Margaret! Lord love you, no! I decline to mix myself up in the matter at all. Dick's a grown man and Mrs. Ballantyne has been acquitted."
Margaret Pettifer knew her husband.
"Is that your last word?" she asked ruefully.
"Absolutely."
"It isn't mine, Robert."
Robert Pettifer chuckled and laid a hand upon his wife's.
"I know that, Margaret."
"We are going to dine next Friday night at Little Beeding to meet Stella
Ballantyne."