"I want to see Miss Waddington."
"Miss Waddington is not at home."
"Can I see Mr. Waddington?" asked George, accepting the second-best.
"Mr. Waddington is not at home."
George hesitated a moment before he spoke again. But love conquers all.
"Can I see Mrs. Waddington?"
"Mrs. Waddington is not at home."
As the butler spoke, there proceeded from the upper regions of the house a commanding female voice that inquired of an unseen Sigsbee how many times the speaker had told him not to smoke in the drawing-room.
"But I can hear her," George pointed out.
The butler shrugged his shoulders with an aloof gesture, as if disclaiming all desire to go into these mysteries. His look suggested that he thought George might possibly be psychic.