He found her at home, and was received by her with her merriest smile and most welcoming manner.
“Sherry, I hoped you would come!” she said. “I oughtn’t to ask it of you, I dare say, but give me a kiss for old times’ sake!”
He obeyed this behest willingly enough, for if she was growing to be a little faded she was still a cosy armful, and he had a fondness for her quite apart from his amorous dealings with her. “Yes, this is all very well, Nancy, but I’m a married man now! Turned over a new leaf!” he said, giving her plump shoulders a hug.
“Lord bless you, Sherry, don’t I know that? And you need not be thinking that I’ve sent for you to make trouble, for that’s what I would never do, and so you should know! It’s because we had some delightful times together, and I always liked you, that I asked you to come. Yes, and I like the look of that little wife of yours, Sherry — and that’s the root of the matter!”
“What the deuce has my wife to do with it?” he demanded.
“Sit down, my dear, and take that ugly frown off your face, do! You’ve been at Newmarket, haven’t you?”
“Yes, but — ”
“Well, now, Sherry, if I’m telling you something you don’t care to hear from me, just you remember that I wouldn’t breathe a word if I weren’t fond of you, and if I didn’t happen to have heard — never mind where! that that little wife of yours is only a baby who ain’t up to snuff like half the fine ladies that hold their noses so high in the air!”
The Viscount’s blue eyes were fixed intently on her face. “Go on!” he said briefly.
She smiled at him. “Well, my dearie, I saw your wife where she’d no business to be, and how she came there is what I can’t tell you, for try as I will I can’t discover who put her in the way of meeting Charlotte Gillingham.”