"Oh, dear, I wish I could afford more. I know you're worth it."
Eileen thought, "If you'd only give your guests good claret instead of bad champagne!" But she said, "You are very kind—you have always been most considerate."
The plumes wagged.
"I try to please all parties."
Nelly O'Neill thought, "And to give too many." Eileen said, "Yes, you've given me my evenings to myself as it is, and considering the new work is only in the evenings, I did think of running the two, but I'm afraid—"
"If we lightened your work a little—" interrupted Mrs. Lee Carter, eagerly.
"I shouldn't so much ask that as to have perfect freedom like a young man—a latch-key even." Never had Eileen looked more demure and Puritan.
"Oh, I hope you won't be working too late—"
"The people who go there are engaged in the daytime. I'd better be frank with you; it's an extremely unfashionable place towards the East End, and I quite understand you may not like me to take it. At the same time I shall never meet anybody who knows me. In fact, it's a dancing and singing place."
"Oh!" said Mrs. Lee Carter, blankly. "I didn't know you could teach dancing, too."