"And will she be likely to find your sister?"
"That will depend, my dear fellow, on whether my sister remains to see her."
"Exactly; but the point's whether you'll allow her to remain, isn't it?"
Nick looked slightly mystified. "Why shouldn't she do as she likes?"
"In that case she'll probably go."
"Yes, unless she stays."
"Don't let her," Peter dropped; "send her away." And to explain this he added: "It doesn't seem exactly the right sort of thing, fresh young creatures like Bid meeting des femmes de théâtre." His explanation, in turn, struck him as requiring another clause; so he went on: "At least it isn't thought the right sort of thing abroad, and even in England my foreign ideas stick to me."
Even with this amplification, however, his plea evidently still had for his companion a flaw; which, after he had considered it a moment, Nick exposed in the simple words: "Why, you originally introduced them in Paris, Biddy and Miss Rooth. Didn't they meet at your rooms and fraternise, and wasn't that much more 'abroad' than this?"
"So they did, but my hand had been forced and she didn't like it," Peter answered, suspecting that for a diplomatist he looked foolish.
"Miss Rooth didn't like it?" Nick persisted.