"Good gracious!" Lady Attwill answered, "can't a woman stay at the same hotel with a man she knows without scandal?"
"Scandal!" Lord Ellerdine replied. "Damn the scandal! It's what folks think. It's who you are. Lots of women wouldn't mind staying at the same hotel I was staying at, and nobody would dream that there was anything wrong—you wouldn't, Alice. But Peggy and Collingwood make people suspect them."
Lady Attwill went up to Lord Ellerdine and pinched his arm playfully. "You silly old Dicky," she said, "you've been listening to a lot of stupid twaddle at your clubs."
"Well," he answered, "they know pretty well what's going on."
"Yes, I suppose they do," she said. "Talk about women and their gossip! Why, Dicky, they're not in it with your smoke-room gang."
At that moment Pauline entered from Mrs. Admaston's bedroom. There was a hardly veiled hostility in her face as she spoke, though her manner was civil enough. "Madame will see Lady Attwill," she said.
Lady Attwill swept across the room, flashing a somewhat curious glance at the old maidservant as she passed her, and entered the bedroom.
Lord Ellerdine had strolled up to the fireplace. "Tell Peggy I am waiting," he called out.
"All right," Lady Attwill said. "You amuse yourself for a few minutes."
Lord Ellerdine began to hum a little tune; then he noticed Pauline, who was arranging some violets upon a side table. "Morning, Pauline," he said. "How's madame?"