"Give me half a chance, I think I can make you understand——"
"You had that chance weeks ago, and deliberately refused it. Do you imagine I will give you another opportunity to affront me as you did?"
"But surely you got my note——"
"What note?"
"The note I sent to the Hollywood, explaining I was called East on two hours' notice, but would return as soon as I could; begging you to consider our interview merely postponed——"
"If you sent any such note, I could hardly have failed to receive it."
"But Linda! I did send it, an hour before I left, by special delivery—'pon my word I did!"
"Possibly," Lucinda suggested with laboured scorn, "you misaddressed it, forgetting which of your numerous feminine acquaintances you were writing to."
"I addressed it," Bel insisted stoutly, "to Mrs. Bellamy Druce."
"If so, that explains it. They know me at the hotel only as Linda Lee."