“I can be pushed just so far!” muttered the offender darkly.
There was now a ring at the door which I took the liberty of answering, and received two notes from a messenger. One bore the address of Mrs. Floud and the other was quite astonishingly to myself, the name preceded by “Colonel.”
“That’s Jen’ Ballard’s stationery!” cried Mrs. Belknap-Jackson. “Trust her not to lose one second in getting busy!”
“But he mustn’t answer the door that way,” exclaimed her husband as I handed Mrs. Effie her note.
They were indeed both from my acquaintance of the night before. Receiving permission to read my own, I found it to be a dinner invitation for the following Friday. Mrs. Effie looked up from hers.
“It’s all too true,” she announced grimly. “We’re asked to dinner and she earnestly hopes dear Colonel Ruggles will have made no other engagement. She also says hasn’t he the darlingest English accent. Oh, isn’t it a mess!”
“You see how right I am,” said Belknap-Jackson.
“I guess we’ve got to go through with it,” conceded Mrs. Effie.
“The pushing thing that Ballard woman is!” observed her friend.
“Ruggles!” exclaimed Belknap-Jackson, addressing me with sudden decision.