"I can't."
"Very good; that is your affair," said she. "But make up your mind soon what you will do. Any line is better than none, as it was always."
At the moment a footman entered.
"Ask her to wait in the drawing-room," said Lady Ardingly, before he had spoken. Then, without pausing: "Good-bye, Jack. Send me a line; or we shall meet at Ascot, shall we not?"
Jack hesitated a moment.
"She is very obstinate," he said.
"Your wife?" asked Lady Ardingly.
"No; the person you asked to wait in the drawing-room."
Lady Ardingly laughed. She never minded being found out.
"So am I," she said. "Don't meet her on the stairs."