There was mischief brewing. Lady Longridge noted the stress on those two words, and felt more uncomfortable than she would have liked to confess. After an interval of silence she said—
"I know you like to linger over your last cup and the paper, so, if you will excuse me, I will go up and see Florence."
She was not long absent. When she presented herself at the bedroom door, she found it locked, and in answer to her knock and request to be admitted, the voice of her daughter-in-law replied—
"I cannot see any one at present."
There was something in the tone which prevented Lady Longridge from making a second application for admission, and she returned to her son.
"Your wife will not admit me, Philip," she said.
"It is not always convenient to receive visitors when one is dressing," was the calm reply.
"She might have been civil."
"I have always found her more, and better, than merely civil, but she may be adapting her manners to those prevailing at Northbrook."
And again he turned to the "Times."