Only the presence of the venerable Mr. Longvale prevented Jack from expressing his views on Stella Mendoza and all that she could say.
“There’s another person I saw last night,” nodded Mr. Longvale. “I thought at first you must be shooting—is that the expression?—in the neighbourhood, but Mr. Foss told me that I was mistaken. She’s rather a charming girl, don’t you think?”
“Very,” said Jack dryly.
“A very sweet disposition,” Longvale went on, unconscious of the utter lack of sympathy in the atmosphere. “Nowadays, the confusion and hurry which modernity brings in its trail do not make for sweetness of temper, and one is glad to meet an exception. Not that I am an enemy of modernity. To me, this is the most delightful phase of my long life.”
“Sweet disposition!” almost howled Jack Knebworth when the old man had taken a dignified farewell. “Did you get that, Brixan? Say, if that woman’s disposition is sweet, the devil’s made of chocolate!”
CHAPTER XXII
THE HEAD
When Mike went out, he found Stella at the gate of the studio, and remembered, seeing her, that she had been invited to lunch at Griff Towers. To his surprise she crossed the road to him.
“I wanted to see you, Mr. Brixan,” she said. “I sent in word to find if you were there.”
“Then your message was wrongly delivered to Mr. Knebworth,” smiled Mike.
She lifted one of her shoulders in demonstration of her contempt for Jack Knebworth and all his works.