“Yes, so everybody says.”
Lady Sophia’s voice interrupted the gossip. She was beckoning to Betty with her memorandum-book.
“Betty, can you spare me a moment?”
Miss Cozens’s sharp eyes gave an envious twinkle.
“Shall I pin up the papers for you, Mrs. Steel?”
“Would you?”
“With pleasure.”
And Betty swept two sheets of paper towards Miss Cozens without troubling to glance at them, and turned to wait on Lady Sophia.
Several ladies congregated about the black-board as Miss Cozens pinned up the letter and the price-list with such conscientious promptitude that she had not troubled to read their contents. Had she had eyes for the faces of her neighbors she might have been struck by the puzzled eagerness of their expression. One elderly committee woman readjusted her glasses, and then touched Miss Cozens with a pencil that she carried.
“Excuse me.”