"She's an honest girl."
"I sincerely hope so, seeing she is your companion," replied Leah, not caring to take up so ridiculous a challenge. "When did you start her?"
"Leah!" Lady Canvey thumped the ground again. "Don't talk slang. If you wish to know, although I don't think it is any of your business, Joan Tallentire came to me two months ago, during which time you have not come to see me."
"I was abroad," apologised Lady Jim, stifling a yawn.
"Gambling at Monte Carlo, I'll be bound."
"I did meet Jim there. He lost heavily on the red. I won, and came home with enough to see me through the last month."
"Who were you living on abroad?" asked the old woman, contemptuously.
Lady Jim leaned back and placed her muff-chain between two very red lips.
"Let me think," she murmured, not put out in the least. "Oh, that little dowdy Australian woman, who is trying to get into society on her husband's money, asked me to stop at their villa."
"And you did?"