“Oh, come now! Things haven’t got to such a pass that a woman can’t be seen with a man——”
“No, but no honest woman can be seen alone with d’Arcy. Leilah ought to know better. She ought to know better too than to go to the Ritz. As she does not appear to, I propose to tell her.”
“Do as you like,” replied Silverstairs who would have said the same thing no matter what his wife had suggested. The lady had not entirely Americanised this Englishman but she had at least made him realise the futility of argument.
“Do as you like,” he repeated. “There are the Orlonnas. There are the Zubaroffs.”
At once to the quick click of an ouvreuse’s key, the door opened and Tempest appeared, a foulard showing above his coat.
While he removed these things Violet called at him:
“You’re late.”
Silverstairs laughed. “He always is. At Christ Church he was known as the late Lord Howard.”
Tempest moved forward and sat down between them.