“Quite right,” said Dr. O’Grady, “there’s nothing like it.”
“Then I may as well tell you,” said Mrs. Ford, “that I think it was due to my position—however much you may dislike me personally——”
“I don’t. On the contrary——”
“——Due to my position as the wife of the resident magistrate that I, and not that Mrs. Gregg, should have been invited to present the bouquet to Lady Chesterton.”
Dr. O’Grady gasped. Then he realised that he had made a fearful blunder.
“Half an hour ago,” said Mrs. Ford, “that woman, who isn’t even a lady, bounced into my house, giggling, and told me to my face that you had asked her——”
“Silly little thing, isn’t she?” said Dr. O’Grady. “But of course, you have far too much sense to be annoyed by anything she said.”
“Don’t imagine for a moment,” said Mrs. Ford, “that I am vexed. The slight, although it was evidently intentional, does not affect me in the least. If you knew me a little better than you do, Dr. O’Grady, you would understand that I am not at all the sort of person who cares about presenting bouquets.”
“Of course not,” said Dr. O’Grady. “We quite realised that. We understood that in your position, as wife of the resident magistrate of the district, the presentation of a bouquet would have been infra dig. After all, what’s a bouquet? Poor little Mrs. Gregg! Of course it’s a great promotion for her and she’s naturally a bit above herself. But no one would dream of asking you to present a bouquet. We have far too high a respect for Mr. Ford’s position.”
“I think,” said Mrs. Ford, “that I ought to have been consulted.”