“I am very out of practice,” said Mrs. Hargreaves. “But still I will try.”
Herbert breathed a prayer of thankfulness, and hurried to conduct the lady to the music-stool.
As he did so there was a noise outside the window. Newspaper men were shouting their sing-song: “Raid on the ‘Ouse. Suffragette Outrage. Raid on the ‘Ouse of Commins.”
“What are the devils saying?” asked Hargreaves, trying to catch the words.
“Something about the Suffragettes,” growled Atkinson Brown.
“I’m afraid it will give poor Clare a worse headache,” said Mrs. Atkinson Brown.
Mrs. Heywood tried to be reassuring:
“Oh, I don’t think so.”
At that moment there was a loud ring at the bell. The sound was so prolonged that it startled the company.
Herbert listened intently and then whispered to his mother: