"Thanks, I shall be delighted!" he said, "if I shan't be de trop."
There was a touch of mockery in Nina's smile.
"We shall probably be alone," she said. "My husband's business keeps him late in the City. We have been home a week, and he has only managed to dine with me once."
"Isn't he here to-night?" asked Archie.
She shook her head.
"What an infernal shame!" he exclaimed impulsively. "Oh, I beg your pardon! That was a slip."
But Nina laid her hand on his sleeve.
"You needn't apologize," she said, in a low voice. "One can't have everything. If you marry—an outsider—for his money, you have to pay the penalty."
Archie looked at her with further indiscretion upon the tip of his tongue. But he thought twice and kept it back.
"I say, you know," he said awkwardly, "I—I'm sorry."