'What have you come in, Nora?' asked Stanway, 'the trap?'
'No, the four-wheeled dog-cart, dear.'
'Well, Twemlow, drive up and have tea with us. Come along and have a Five Towns high-tea.'
'Oh, Mr. Twemlow, do!' said Milly, nearly drowning Leonora's murmured invitation.
Arthur hesitated.
'Come along,' Stanway insisted genially. 'Of course you will.'
'Thank you,' was the rather feeble answer. 'But I shall have to leave pretty early.'
'We'll see about that,' said Stanway. 'You can take Mr. Twemlow and the girls, Nora, and I'll follow as quick as I can. I must dictate a letter or two.'
The three women, Twemlow in the midst, escaped like a pretty cloud out of the rude, dingy office, and their bright voices echoed diminuendo down the stair. Stanway rang his bell fiercely. The dictionary and the letter and Ethel's paper lay forgotten on the dusty table of the inner room.