“She said she was hurrying back home.”

That raised a question so plain that Dorothy thought it tactful to make rather a fuss about finding some album or other that should convince Katie that she really had met the Mollie who had written the letter about the window-curtains. Lady Tasker’s needle was dancing rather more quickly than usual. Dorothy found her album, switched on another light, and told Katie to make room for her on her chair.

Amory, dawdling like that, and then, when spoken to, to have the face to say that she was hurrying back home!——

It was some minutes later that Lady Tasker said off-handedly, “Has she any children besides those twins?”

“Amory?” Dorothy replied, looking up from the album. “No.”

“How old is she?” Lady Tasker asked.

“Thirty-two, isn’t she, Katie?”

“About that.”

“Is she very—athletic?” Lady Tasker next wanted to know.

“Not at all, I should say.”