Shawe was startled. "Mrs. Mellop?" he asked, after a bewildered pause.
"No. Although his mere invitation to Mrs. Mellop that she should be my chaperon has caused her to entertain ideas of marriage. Do you know Rosy Pearl?"
"The music-hall dancer? Yes."
"Well, she is to be the future Lady Branwin."
"Oh! Audrey," cried Shawe, greatly astonished, "you must be mistaken."
"I had the information from my father's own lips," insisted Audrey. "What do you know of this woman?"
"Very little. She is a handsome woman in the style of Juno, and is a wonderful dancer. I heard that Sir Joseph had been paying attentions to her, but I did not dream that he contemplated marriage with her."
"He does, then. Mrs. Mellop calls her a painted butterfly."
"She's a very substantial butterfly," said Shawe, with the ghost of a smile; for Audrey was too much in earnest to tolerate lightness of any sort. "And I believe she is rather a respectable woman."
"Such a woman as should stand in the place of my dead mother?" asked Audrey, looking searchingly at his face.