"Yes. At least I suppose Ashley couldn't go with me, could he?"
"He would if you asked him, I should think," said Irene most impatiently.
"He can run down and see me, though," observed Ora in a slightly more cheerful tone. "I shall wire my address and ask him to let me know what—what happened. Only—only I'm rather afraid to know. I should like just to leave it all to Ashley."
"I think you're quite mad."
"I was nearly, at the thought of meeting him. I wonder what Ashley did with him." A faint and timid smile appeared on her lips as she looked at her friend. "Their meeting must have been rather funny," she added, with obvious fear, but yet unable to resist confiding her amusement.
"Did anybody ever beat you, Ora?" demanded Lady Kilnorton.
"Yes, dear," confessed Ora plaintively.
"Then they didn't do it enough, that's all."
Ora sat silent for a moment still, smiling a little.
"It's no good being unkind to me," she remarked then. "I don't see how I could have done anything else. I did my very best to—to let him come; but I couldn't."