It was a proud time for the MC, and he knew how it would be canvassed in Saltinville. All the principal people would have honoured his little home, and in the future he saw his fees and offerings doubled, and Claire well married—to Lord Carboro’. No, he could not say that, though the bait was glittering still before his eyes.
He was in the drawing-room waiting, with pretty May smiling out of her curls, hanging in her tawdry frame upon the wall; but Claire was not yet down.
If she would only forget that night and not avoid him as she did, how much less difficult this burden would be to bear.
He rang, and Isaac, in a new suit of livery, appeared.
“Send word to your mistress that it is time she was down, Isaac.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is everything ready?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The cards on the tables?”
“Yes, sir.”