'No woman would dare to come in so late as this. She'd have turned back and telephoned that the horses had run away with her or something of the sort.'
'Dick Farnborough won't turn back.'
'Oh, Mr. Farnborough's the culprit!' said a smartly dressed woman, with a nervous, rather angry air, though the ropes of fine pearls she wore might, some would think, have soothed the most savage breast.
'Yes, Dick and Captain Beeching!' said Mrs. Freddy; 'and I shall give them just two minutes more!'
'Aunt Ellen said it couldn't be a woman,' remarked the girl in pink, as one struck with such perspicacity.
'Well, I wouldn't ask them again to my house,' said the discontented person with the pearls.
'Yes, she would,' Lady John said aside to Borrodaile. 'She has a daughter, and so have most of the London hostesses, and the young villains know it.'
'Oh, yes; sometimes they never turn up at all,' said the pink niece.
'After accepting!' ejaculated Lady Whyteleafe of the pearls.
'Oh, yes; sometimes they don't even answer.'