'Henceforward Mrs. Trevalla ceases to exist for me.' He was really quite in the same tale with Mrs. Bonfill and society at large.
His declaration seemed to amuse Peggy. 'Oh, well, that's putting it rather strongly, perhaps,' she murmured.
'Not a bit!' retorted Fricker, with his confident contemptuousness.
'You can never tell how you may run up against people,' remarked Peggy with a mature sagacity.
He leant back, looking at her. 'I've learnt to think that your observations have a meaning, Miss Ryle.'
'Yes,' Peggy confessed. 'But I don't exactly know——' She frowned a moment, and then smiled with the brightness of a new idea. 'Where's your daughter, Mr. Fricker?'
'Connie's in her room.' He did not add that, by way of keeping vivid the memory of moral lessons, he had sent her there on Peggy's arrival.
'Do you think she'd give me a cup of tea?'
It was rather early for tea. 'Well, I daresay she would,' smiled Fricker. 'I shall hear what's up afterwards?'
'Yes, I'm sure you will,' promised Peggy.