Clare Heywood answered very quietly:
“I think something must have broken,” she said.
Then she gave a queer, strident laugh.
CHAPTER II
MRS. Heywood was arranging the drawingroom for an evening At Home, dusting the mantelshelf and some of the ornaments with a little hand broom. There were refreshments on a side table. Mollie was trying to make the fire burn up. Every now and then a gust of smoke blew down the chimney. Clare was sitting listlessly in a low chair near the French window, with a book on her lap, but she was not reading.
“Drat the fire,” said Mollie, with her head in the fireplace.
“For goodness’ sake, Mollie, stop it smoking like that!” said Mrs. Heywood. “It’s no use my dusting the room.”
“The devil is in the chimney, it strikes me,” said Mollie.