It was deeply bordered in black. Even Milton was startled at reading it: "Mrs. Taylor Dodge."
He looked at the woman in open-mouthed astonishment. Even he knew that
Elaine's mother had been dead for years.
The woman, however, true to her name in the artistic coterie in which she was leader, had sunk into a chair and was sobbing convulsively, as only "Weepy Mary" could.
It was so effective that even Milton was visibly moved. He took the card in, excitedly, to Bennett.
"There's a woman outside—says she is Mrs. Dodge!" he cried.
If Milton had had an X-ray eye he could have seen her take a cigarette from her handbag and light it nonchalantly the moment he was gone.
As for Bennett, Milton, who was watching him closely, thought he was about to discharge him on the spot for bothering him. He took the card, and his face expressed the most extreme surprise, then anger. He thought a moment.
"Tell that woman to state her business in writing," he thundered curtly at Milton.
As the boy turned to go back to the waiting room, Weepy Mary, hearing him coming, hastily shoved the cigarette into her "son's" hand.
"Mr. Bennett says for you to write out what it is you want to see him about," reported Milton, indicating the table before which she was sitting.