"Excuse me," said I. "It was a jolly good hat."
A long tense silence followed my interruption. At length—
"I say, are you there, Dot?"
"Yes," came the reply in an excited whisper. "Who was that speaking?"
"I've not the faintest idea," rejoined the first voice I had heard. "Somebody must have got on to our line. I expect——"
A familiar explosion severed the sentence with the clean efficiency of the guillotine.
"Isn't that sickening?" said I. "Now we shall never know what her theory was."
"It's all your fault, whoever you are. If you hadn't butted in——"
"I don't know what you mean," I retorted. "I was ushered into your presence, so to speak, by la force majeure. French. Very difficult."
"Well, when you heard us talking, you ought to have got off the line."