"This is Mrs. Herrick."
"Hello. This is Gregory Allen."
"Well!" It came with just the right degree of heartiness. "When did you get back?"
"About two minutes ago. Am I in time to take you to dinner? Hello. Hello. I say, Central, you've cut me off. I want——"
"Hello. No, they haven't cut off. I'm trying to 'phone, and listen to a meeting in the other room at the same time." With the ease of this falsehood, Jean's composure crept back.
"Who is it,—The Dalton?"
"Yes, after a month's rest."
"I'll come straight down and rescue you. Give everybody a ton of ice all around and close the meeting."
"It's milk," Jean whispered into the receiver, "the Caseys have had a quart a day for three weeks! We've been half an hour on it now."
"It sounds like an all-night session, but I'm coming just the same. Six thirty, will that be all right?"