Lady Haldwell was surprised. She had not expected this cleverness. They talked casually for a little time, the visitor trying in vain to delicately give the conversation a personal turn. At last, a little foolishly, she grew bolder, with a needless selfishness.
“So old a friend of your husband as I am, I am hopeful you and I may be friends also.”
Mrs. Armour saw the move.
“You are very kind,” she said conventionally, and offered a cup of tea.
Lady Haldwell now ventured unwisely. She was nettled at the other’s self-possession.
“But then, in a way, I have been your friend for a long time, Mrs. Armour.”
The point was veiled in a vague tone, but Mrs. Armour understood. Her reply was not wanting. “Any one who has been a friend to my husband has, naturally, claims upon me.”
Lady Haldwell, in spite of herself, chafed. There was a subtlety in the woman before her not to be reckoned with lightly.
“And if an enemy?” she said, smiling.
A strange smile also flickered across Mrs. Armour’s face as she said: