“Yes, pretty often, Dr. Neeburg. Do you approve of it? You are his doctor, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but he hasn’t been to see me for ages, so I suppose he keeps pretty fit. All the same, I don’t approve of it.”
“He’s looking very tired,” said Claudia lightly. “Last night he did go out with me to a party at the ‘Ritz,’ but he was too tired to talk. I am sure the woman who sat next to him must be going about saying that the new K.C. is the dullest man in London.”
“I must talk to him,” said Neeburg decidedly. “He’s just the sort of a man who has a splendid constitution and takes that as an excuse for overwork. When a man gets into the habit of thinking of himself as a machine Nature has a little way of avenging such slights.”
“Mrs. Currey, give him a curtain lecture,” said Image.
Claudia’s lip curled a little and she raised her eyebrows. “You can’t curtain-lecture a man who listens in silence and then says, like putting in the cork, ‘You don’t understand. Women never do. A man who wants to make his way nowadays must devote himself whole-heartedly to his work. The world is strewn with the wreckage of men who have relaxed too soon or “taken holidays.”’”
Patricia has returned.
“Claudia, I did my best, and even spoke quite plainly; but I couldn’t get you off. She was very cross indeed. Her voice through the telephone was like that of an angry mosquito. She says you, at least, must come, and she wants you to bring a substitute. She suggested that Mr. Hamilton should come out with you, as she wants to make his acquaintance.”
Claudia spoke coldly. “I can’t ask Mr. Hamilton, or anyone, to take Gilbert’s place at a couple of hours’ notice.”