"Which amounts to the same thing," smiled the New Yorker.
Robert Morton vouchsafed no reply.
"Have your friends the Galbraiths met this—other lady?" asked Snelling insinuatingly.
"No, not yet."
"I see."
There was something offensive in the observation; something, too, that compelled Robert Morton even against his will to add with dignity:
"I am expecting to take Miss Hathaway over to see them some day soon."
He told himself, as he uttered the words, that he owed Howard Snelling no explanation and that it was ridiculous of him to make one; nevertheless he felt impelled to do so.
Mr. Snelling smiled superciliously.
"That will be very pleasant, won't it?" he remarked.