This shot told; for Mr. Pompadour had been very attentive of late.
Mrs. Taragon nearly tore a leaf out of her book.
"At any rate," she retorted, "my visitors are respectable."
Terpsichore's lip quivered. The remark was cruel, but it roused her spirit.
"If my company is not respectable," she said, with an incipient sob, "it is the fault of his bringing up."
Mr. Pompadour was hit this time, right between his eyes. The widow blazed.
"You—you—you minx," she said, angrily, "I believe you'd like to see me dead, and out of your way!"
The remark was utterly irrelevant; but she saw it in the book, and thought it would be dramatic.