Helsa Steyr started for her, but Jacqueline sprang to the stairs and ran up, pursued by Helsa and Betty.
"Isn't she the cunningest, sweetest thing!" sighed Athalie Vannis, looking after her. "I'm simply and sentimentally mad over her. Why didn't you have brains enough to discover her, Jim, and make her marry you?"
"I'd have knocked 'em out if he had had enough brains for that," muttered Ledyard. "But the horrible thing is that I haven't any brains, either, and Miss Nevers has nothing but!"
"A girl like that marries diplomats and dukes, and discoverers and artists and things," commented Betty. "You're just a good-looking simp, Reggie. So is Jim."
Ledyard retorted wrathfully; Desboro, who had been summoned to the telephone, glanced at Aunt Hannah as he walked away, and was rather disturbed at the malice in the old lady's menacing smile.
But what Daisy Hammerton said to him over the telephone disturbed him still more.
"Jim! Elena and Cary Clydesdale are stopping with us. May I bring them to dinner this evening?"
For a moment he was at a loss, then he said, with forced cordiality:
"Why, of course, Daisy. But have you spoken to them about it? I've an idea that they might find my party a bore."