"Don't send us away," said Camilla, when coffee was brought in; "please smoke, all of you. Agnes doesn't mind—do you, Agnes? and I love it."
As the liqueurs were being handed to him, Haverford's man addressed him confidentially.
"Could I speak to you, sir?" he asked.
Mr. Haverford looked upwards; the request was unusual; then he just nodded his head.
"All right, I'll come to you in a minute."
He waited a little while, and then, when the conversation was general, and there was a movement from the dining-room, with a murmured excuse to his two women guests, he left them.
Harper was waiting for him.
"What is the matter, Harper?" he asked impatiently enough.
"I'm sorry to bring you away, sir," said the man, "but there's a young person that wants to see you, sir. I told her that you'd friends to dinner, but she wouldn't be sent away. Says she must see you. She came quite a hour ago. I put her in your study. She's come from Mrs. Baynhurst, I think, sir," the man added. "I asked her to tell me what she wanted, but she wouldn't do it. Insisted that she must speak to you yourself, sir."
Rupert Haverford gave a few orders to the man about having certain rooms lit up for Mrs. Brenton to see, and then went along the broad passage to the room where he usually sat and smoked and worked.