“You did not go across to Mallorca?” she inquired, in a voice that did not reach the other room. “No,” he answered, “I did not go across to Mallorca.”
He stepped back a pace to move a chair which was too near to him, and the movement made it impossible for her to continue the conversation without raising her voice. She countered at once by rising and laying the music aside.
“I am too tired for more,” she said. “You must ask Agatha to accompany you. She plays beautifully. I have it from her mother!”
Mrs. Harrington stood for a moment looking into the other room. Luke and Agatha were talking together with some animation.
“I have been very busy lately,” she said conversationally. “Perhaps you have failed to notice that I have had this room redecorated?”
He looked round the apartments with a smile, which somehow conveyed a colossal contempt. “Very charming,” he said.
“It was done by a good man and cost a round sum.” She paused, looking at him with a mocking glance. “In fact, I am rather in need of money. My balance at the bank is not so large as I could wish.”
The Count’s dark eyes rested on her face with the small gleam in their depths which has already been noted.
“I am not good at money matters,” he said. “But, so far as I recollect, you have already exceeded our--”
“Possibly.”