"I can't help thinking that that sort of treatment makes servants impertinent."
"I do not care to hear your criticism of my guardian, Gregory."
"I beg your pardon," said Gregory.
Betty Jardine met him on a windy April evening in Queen Anne's Gate. "I see that you had to sacrifice me, Gregory," she said. She smiled; she bore no grudge; but her smile was tinged with a shrewd pity.
He felt that he flushed. "You mean that you've not been to see us since the occasion."
"I've not been asked!" Betty laughed.
"Madame von Marwitz is with us, you know," Gregory proffered rather lamely.
"Yes; I do know. How do you like having a genius domiciled? I hear that she is introducing Karen into a very artistic set. After the Bannisters, Mr. Claude Drew. He is back from America at last, it seems, and is an assiduous adorer. You have seen a good deal of him?"
"I haven't seen him at all. Has he been back for long?"
"Four or five days only, I believe; but I don't know how often he and Madame von Marwitz and Karen have been seen together. Don't think me a cat, Gregory; but if she is engaged in a flirtation with that most unpleasant young man I hope you will see to it that Karen isn't used as a screen. There have been some really horrid stories about him, you know."