"Only by reputation," said Knapp, with gentle irony.
"I've seen her," said Billings. "At the horse show. Or was it the automobile—"
"I was in her box at one and in her tonneau at the other," said Mr. Van Pycke, taking the cigar Knapp extended. He glanced at his watch with sudden interest. "Yes, I see quite a bit of her. Charming girl—ahem! Of course" (punctuating his opinion with deliberate care) "she has been talked about, in a way. Lot of demmed old tabbies around town rippin' her up the back whenever she turns to look the other way. Old Mrs. Scoville is the queen tabby. She hates the young Mrs. Jim like poison. And, come to think of it, I don't blame the dowager. Charlotte is one of the most attract—"
"Charlotte!" exclaimed Knapp. "Do you call her Charlotte?"
"Certainly!" said Mr. Van Pycke, with a chilly uplifting of his eyebrows.
"I thought her name was Laura," said Billings, who read all the gossip in the weekly periodicals.
Mr. Van Pycke coughed. There seemed some likelihood of his bursting, the fit lasted so long.
"Charlotte is a pet name we have for her," he explained, somewhat huskily, when it was over. "Demmed stupid of me!" he was saying to himself. "As I said before, I don't blame the old lady. Young Mrs. Jim has got five or six of the Scoville millions, and she's showing the family how to spend it. Her husband's been dead over two years. She's got a perfect right to take notice of other men and to have a bit of fun if she takes the notion. Hasn't she? I—I—it wouldn't surprise me at all if she were to take a new husband unto herself before long." He uttered a very conscious cackle and looked at his watch quite suddenly—or past it, rather, for he forgot to open the virtuously chased hunting case.
Billings waited a moment. "I hear she is quite devoted to Chauncey De Foe,—or is it the other way?"
Mr. Van Pycke took five puffs at his cigar before responding, all the while staring at Billings in a perfectly unseeing way.