“She told me once that from the first she realized that he would do big things.”
“So Nita kept in touch!” Mr. Flood laughed outright.
“But it’s only the last few years that she’s been able to produce him at will, like a conjuror’s rabbit.”
“Since Madala’s advent, you mean,” said the blonde lady.
“‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said Anita to the fly. ‘It’s a literary parlour——’” murmured Mr. Flood. And then—“No. Kent’s not likely to have walked in without a honey-pot in the parlour. Madala must have been useful.”
“That’s what Miss Serle will never forgive her, I think,” said the Baxter girl.
“What?”
“That she was useful. Do you believe in the other man?”
“The unknown influence?” His eyes narrowed. “H’m!”
“And yet of course there’s been someone.” The Baxter girl never quite deserted Anita, even in her absence.