"But, mother, it's absurd."
Mrs. Milo strolled to a chair and seated herself with elaborate care.
"Well, anyway," she argued, "he carries a girl's picture in his pocket."
In the pause that followed, a telephone began to ring persistently from the direction of the library. But Sue seemed not to hear it. "A picture," she said slowly. And as her mother assented, smiling, "And—and what did he say when he showed it to you?"
Mrs. Milo started. "Well,—er—the fact is," she admitted, "he didn't exactly show it to me."
"Oh." It was scarcely more than a breath.
Mrs. Milo tossed her head. "No," she added tartly, a trifle ruffled by what the low-spoken exclamation so plainly implied. "If you must know, it fell out of his bureau drawer."
Mrs. Balcome threw out a plump arm across the bending back of the sofa and touched a sleeve of the satin gown covertly. "Hm!" she coughed, with meaning.
But Hattie only moved aside irritably. Of a sudden, she was strangely pale.
Dora entered. "Miss Susan, a telephone summons," she announced.
"Yes—yes,"—absent-mindedly.