Clancy's muscles tightened; she sat bolt upright. No grande dame's tones could have been icier.
"You are impertinent, Mr. Carey."
"'Impertinent!'" cried Carey. "I asked you a question; answer it!"
"To meet Mr. Vandervent," Clancy told him. She could have bitten her tongue for the error of her judgment.
Carey's hand let go of the side of the seat. He stepped uncertainly back a pace.
"What's he doing up here? What you meeting him for? D'ye hear that, Garland?" he cried.
The elevator-man of the Heberworth Building still stood at the horse's head. He was smoking a cigarette now, and Clancy could see his crafty eyes as he sucked his breath inward and the tip of the cigarette glowed.
"Ain't that what I been tellin' you?" he retorted. "Didn't Spofford go into your house yesterday and stay there with her an hour or so? Wasn't I watchin' outside? And ain't he laid off her? Didn't he tell me to keep my trap closed about seein' her go to Beiner's office? Ain't he workin' hand in glove with her?"
Carey wheeled toward Clancy.