“In any case——” said Clare.
“What?”
Clare smiled in a tragic way.
“I have received a previous invitation.”
“Oh, drat the invitation.”
“Of course I should have liked to come,” said Clare, “but——”
Madge Vernon was impatient with her. “But what? I hate that word ‘but.’”
“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,” said Clare, speaking with a deeper significance than appeared in the words.
“There is no weakness about you. You have the courage of your convictions. Have you had the window mended yet?”
She laughed gaily and then listened with her head a little on one side to the sound of a bell ringing in the hall.