“But we’re staying at an hotel. We can’t possibly put you to all this trouble,” Audrey protested.
“No trouble. It’s my business. It’s what I’m here for,” said Susan Foley. “I’d sooner have it than mill work any day o’ the week.”
“You’re just going to be very mean if you don’t stay here,” Nick faltered. Tears stood in her eyes again. “You don’t know how I feel.” She murmured something about Betty Burke’s doings,
“We will stay! We will stay!” Miss Ingate agreed hastily. And, unperceived by Nick, she gave Audrey a glance in which irony and tenderness were mingled. It was as if she had whispered, “The nerves of this angel have all gone to pieces. We must humour the little sentimental simpleton.”
CHAPTER XXI
JANE
“We’ve begun, ye see,” said Susan Foley.
It was two minutes past five, and Miss Ingate and Audrey, followed by Nick with her slung arm, entered the sheeted living-room. Tremendous feats had been performed. All the Moncreiff and Ingate luggage, less than two hours earlier lying at the Charing Cross Hotel, was now in two adjoining rooms on the third floor of the great house in Paget Gardens. Drivers and loiterers had assisted, under the strict and taciturn control of Susan Foley. Also Nick, Miss Ingate, and Audrey had had a most intimate conversation, and the two latter had changed their attire to suit the station of campers in a palace.
“It’s lovely to be quite free and independent,” Audrey had said, and the statement had been acclaimed.