"Of course, I am absolutely full up. But—but——"
Mrs. Delarayne fidgeted.
"I'm afraid I shall have to come if I'm to do any good. My senior assistant here will have to do the best he can, that's all."
Although Mrs. Delarayne was quite prepared for this, she had hoped even until the last that Lord Henry might be able to treat Cleopatra from a distance, and that she would therefore be spared the duty of having him at Brineweald. It was a hard pill to swallow, but she took it gracefully.
"When can you come?" she asked with forced cheerfulness.
"Can you send the car for me at about quarter to eight this evening?"
Mrs. Delarayne promised to do this, and the young man rose.
She held his hand for some time as they said good-bye, and gazed longingly into his face. It seemed to her that after this last meeting, alone, on their old terms, nothing could any longer be quite the same. He would become the friend of other members of her family. He would no longer be her private refuge, her nook-and-corner intimate, her own friend, her secret.
"Lord Henry," she pleaded on their way downstairs, "would you advise me to say anything to Leonetta?"
"What can you say?" he protested.