Mrs. Verulam turned to Mr. Rodney.
"Will you please send him away?" she murmured. "I cannot bear this sort of thing to-night."
Mr. Rodney, whose nervous system was in tatters owing to the combination of misfortunes through which he had recently passed, faced round on Mr. Harrison like a hyena.
"Be off with you!" he cried in a piercing manner. "If you dare to argue with me, I'll—I'll——"
He seized a small wooden paper-knife, and the groom of the chambers made an exit that called forth the critical approval of Miss Bindler.
"For an old man, he's in good training," she remarked. "I believe he could still do a mile in under the ten minutes!"
The orchestrion began to deal vigorously with "Cavalleria Rusticana," and under cover of the music the company made various attempts to bring off what Miss Bindler would have called "events." Lady Drake, for instance, sidled up to the Duke, determined to lead up to her continued respectability, and Chloe was on the look-out for the chance of a quiet moment with Mrs. Verulam. But this moment she could not secure, on account of the tiresome behaviour of the Duchess, who was now in the irritable stage of incipient convalescence, and was throned on a purple armchair at Mrs. Verulam's side. Her Grace's horror at the revelation of James Bush, her amazement that her husband should suspect her of unchristian flirtation with a man bred up among bees, drove her into a fit of temper which she proceeded to vent against her hostess. The suspected respectable woman determined to take it out of the woman whom she believed to be what Martha Sage affirmed "a baggage, my dear, an arrant little baggage!" She began by making several ostentatious double chins at Mrs. Verulam, who received the attention with calmness. Then, growing exhausted with this physical exercise, for which she was a little out of training, she resolved to put her vexed and suspected soul into language.
"I have known you for a long time, Mrs. Verulam," she began; "I remember you as a toddler."
"Thank you!"
"Not everyone can say as much."