"Who was with you? I don't like your speakin' like that to people whom father and I don't know."
"Oh, it was only a second," said Alex hastily. "Madame Hippolyte was there, and Colonel Torrance just came up to take Queenie away."
"Torrance—Torrance?" said Lady Isabel reflectively. "Who's Torrance?"
The question made Alex' heart sink afresh. It was one which, coming from her parents, she heard applied to new acquaintances, or occasionally to protégés for whom some intimate friends might crave the favour of an invitation to one of the big Clare "crushes" during the season, and the inquiry was seldom one which boded well for the regard in which the newcomer would be held.
"Mother, you'd like her, I think, really and truly you would. She's awfully pretty."
"Alex!"
Lady Isabel for once sounded really angry.
"I'm so sorry; it slipped out—I didn't mean it—I never really say it. I never do, mother."
Alex became agitated, trying to fend off the accusation which she foresaw was coming.
"I suppose you learn those horrid slang words from this girl you've taken such a violent fancy to."