“What can I do for you?” he asked.
“Why, nothing,” I replied. “I am perfectly comfortable, although the situation is not.”
He looked at me with a puzzled air.
“Why did you send for me?”
“I didn’t. I was told that you wished to see me.”
“There must be some mistake,” he said, and pulled the velvet rope of the bell. As if in answer to the ring, in sauntered Semmeya Hanoum, as cool as a cucumber, cigarette in hand, and apparently just back from her expedition, since she was still in outdoor dress.
We both stared at her in amazement.
“Hullo, Blossom,” she said to me. “Sorry to have left you alone all day.”
She elaborately ignored her husband. After an instant’s stupefaction he strode across the room, took her chin in his hand, and lifted her face.
“Where have you been?” he demanded.