“Yes—vagabonds! vulgar wretches! what about them?”
“They saw me in at a Ladies’ Tea Room in the city, one day when I went shopping.”
“In a Ladies’ Tea Room! Drusilla, I am shocked that you should have gone into such a place unattended. I am annoyed beyond measure that you should have done so! No modest young woman, not to say lady, ever goes alone to such a place!”
“Alick dear, it was the very room you used to take me to, whenever you took me to the city in the first days of our marriage. And I saw ladies there and young ladies and little girls, and even babies and nurses—and one always feels right and safe where there are babies, you know.”
“No; I don’t know it. And besides the ladies and children you speak of were family parties; you went alone; no wonder you were insulted. Which of the villains insulted you—or did both?”
“Neither did, Alick dear. Please don’t be angry. One of the officers came up and spoke to me, calling me ‘Miss’ and claiming my acquaintance. But as you had not introduced him to me I would not know him.”
“And—then?”
“I left the Tea Room and got into the carriage and drove home.”
“And was that all?”
“No; the two officers and the two women that were with them jumped into a hack and followed me.”