“I thought I would look in for half-an-hour,” she said very cheerfully to Clare. “If you are busy, send me packing, my dear.”
“I am never busy,” said Clare. “I have nothing in the world to do.”
“Oh, that’s rotten!” said Madge. “Can’t you invent something? How are you, Mrs. Heywood?”
She shook hands with the old lady, who answered her greeting with a rather grim “Good evening.”
“Herbert is going out to-night,” said Clare. “By the way, you don’t know my husband.”
Madge Vernon looked at Herbert Heywood very sweetly.
“I have heard him singing. How do you do?”
Herbert was not at all pleased with her sweetness.
“Excuse me, won’t you?” he said. “I am just off to my club.”
“Don’t you take your wife with you?” asked Miss Vernon.