"I thought you must have gone abroad or something. You've quite disappeared lately."
"I've been rather busy."
"No one seemed to know what had happened to you."
As Lady Loring moved away, he examined her critically.
"You're looking very well, Babs. And I've heard a great deal about you."
"You always had a talent for that," she laughed. "And for commenting very freely on what you heard. What have you been doing with yourself?"
"I'll tell you at supper, if you'll consent to have supper with me."
He was speaking in the tone and terms that he had used in the old days—before the Ross House ball, before the disastrous Easter gathering at Crawleigh.
"I've promised it to Val Arden," she answered in the same measure. "And two other people, now that I come to think of it."
"Well, promise me—and keep the promise."