The meek one evidently understood, for he reached nervously for his cap.
"Wait!" commanded Madam peremptorily. "Don't start off like that, while I am talking to you! Tell Mr. Bangs this is the third time I've asked him to send me the report of Bartlett " Bangs' export business for the past year. I want it immediately. I am not in my dotage yet. I still have some say-so in the firm. Well, what are you waiting for?"
"I was waiting to know if there was anything more, ma'am."
"If there had been I would have said so. Tell Hannah to come in as you go out."
Eleanor looked at her grandmother expectantly, but there was no answering glance. The old lady was evidently in one of her truculent moods that brooked no interference.
"Has the plumber come?" she demanded of the elderly colored maid who appeared at the door.
"No, ma'am. He can't get here till to-morrow."
"Tell him I won't wait. If he can't come within an hour he needn't come at all. Where is Tom?"
Hannah's eyes shifted uneasily. "Tom? Why, Tom, he thought you discharged him."
"So I did. But he's not to go until I get another butler. Send him up here at once."