"No, leave them. I take them up just as I want them."
She took up a creamy rose and snipped off a fragment of stalk over the saucer. "Why does she call you 'Marko'?"
He was utterly taken aback. If the question had come from any one but Mabel, he would have quite failed to connect it with the letter. But there had distinctly been an "incident" over the letter, though so far closed, as he had imagined, that he was completely surprised.
He said "Who? Nona?"
"Yes, Nona, if you like. Lady Tybar."
"Why, she always has. You know that."
Mabel put the rose into a specimen vase with immense care and touched a speck off its petals with her fingers. "I really didn't."
"Mabel, you know you do. You must have heard her."
"Well, I may have. But long ago. I certainly didn't know she used it in letters."
He felt he was growing angry.