"Why the devil don't you get to your feet when I come in here, you jabbering chimpanzee?" he inquired of the by no means flabbergasted Heloise. She had often seen Judd thus and she was used to his expletives and his fondness for comparing her to the simian species on account of her French tongue. "Where's your mistress?"
"Madame has gone to the theatre," said Heloise, giving Judd a view of a wide, unscreened French yawn.
"Oh, Madame has, has she?" said Judd, apeing the maid's tone with a drunken disregard for even the most ordinary dignity. "What theatre?"
Heloise shrugged.
"What theatre?" Judd bawled at her.
"How should one know?" inquired Heloise, disdainfully enough. "Madame did not say."
Judd plumped himself into a deep chair, cocked his evening hat at a little more acute angle over his left ear, fumblingly loosened the buttons of his overcoat, crossed his legs with grunting difficulty, removed his gloves, revealing the enormous diamond rings which he wore on the third finger of each freckled, pudgy hand; then glared at the unruffled Heloise again.
"Is anybody at home?" he asked her.
"Mademoiselle is here," replied Heloise. "But she is retiring and is not to be seen."
"Oh, she's not to be seen, hey?" snarled Judd. "Who says she isn't to be seen? You?"