"Norah Puncheon's influence over Dicky," replied Connie, popping a lump of sugar into her mouth and crunching it with all the satisfaction of a child of six.
"You have noticed it yourself, then?"
Connie, quite speechless, nodded.
Lady Adela beamed. The scent was growing stronger.
"In what way, dear?" she asked, with unfeigned interest.
"Well," said Connie, after an interval of profound reflection, "Dicky wanted to back Prince Caramel for the St. Leger, and Norah would n't let him. He was so grateful to her afterwards!"
Lady Adela summoned up a lopsided smile--the smile of a tarpon-fisher who has pulled up a red herring.
"I think her influence goes deeper than that, dearest," she rejoined in patient reproof. "You, who only knew my son as a rather careless and light-hearted boy, would hardly credit--"
"A telephone message, my lady!" announced Milroy, appearing at the dining-room door.
Lady Adela, tripped up on her way to a striking passage, sighed with an air of pathetic endurance, and enquired:--