As he rushed home, Frere lashed himself into greater and greater fury. Everett was standing inside the porch when the other man passed him roughly by.
"I say, Frere, what's up?" called Everett, taking the pipe out of his mouth.
"Curse you, don't keep me, I want to speak to Miss Armitage."
Everett burst into a somewhat discordant laugh.
"Your manners are not quite to be desired at the present moment, old man," he said. "Miss Armitage seems to have a strangely disquieting effect upon her swains."
"I do not intend to discuss her with you, Everett. I must speak to her at once."
Everett laughed again.
"She seems to be a person of distinction," he said. "She has just been seen home with much ceremony by no less a person than Awdrey, of The Court."
"Curse Awdrey and all his belongings. Do you know where she is?"
A sweet, high-pitched voice within the house now made itself heard.