Tall and slight, his mistress turned to the doorway, and I saw a well-shaped head, couped at the throat by the white of an ermine stole. Dark hair swept low over her forehead, an attractive smile sat on her pretty mouth, and there was a fine colour springing in her cheeks.
She looked up to see me staring.
For a moment a pair of grey eyes met mine steadily. Then—
"Is the car here?" said Maisie over my shoulder. "Hullo, Berry." Suddenly she saw his companion. "Betty, my dear, I thought you were in Scotland."
Under pretence of arranging her wrap, I breathed Into her ear—
"Introduce me."
She did so without a tremor.
"And give him the next dance for me," she added. "I've just cut one of his, and he's been most forgiving."
"Too late," said Berry. "I have not wasted the shining thirty minutes which I have just spent in Lady Elizabeth's luxurious car. She knows him for the craven that he is."
"I must judge for myself," said my lady, turning to me with a smile. "He's given you a terrible——"