"Well, my dear, go as soon as it suits yourself. You have been a good pal to me, and I shall be sorry to lose you. But if you have got a decent chance you would be a fool not to take it."
Miss Keane was strongly of the same opinion. Anyway she was glad the interview was over, that Mrs. L'Estrange had taken everything in such good part. She might have turned nasty if the mood had seized her.
Later on, Miss Keane wrote a long letter to Tommy Esmond to an address which he had communicated to her in his note of the morning.
The same evening, she held a long conversation with her cousin and trustee, Mr. Dutton, who came to Elsinore Gardens in obedience to an urgent summons on the telephone.
CHAPTER XIV
Lady Nina Spencer sat in the drawing-room of the big house in Carlton House Terrace, awaiting the few guests who had been invited to a small, informal dinner-party. Her father, very infirm for his years, sat opposite to her in a big easy-chair.
The Earl spoke in his low, quavering voice: "I have nothing to say against the woman herself, judging from what little we have seen of her. She has very perfect manners, just a trifle too perfect. I can quite understand that for the average man she possesses considerable charm, and she has great good looks. Many people would call her beautiful. But I can only repeat what I said on the day I received Guy's letter announcing his clandestine marriage: 'The pity of it.'"
Lady Nina was a quiet, robust and practical young person, fond of looking facts in the face, and looking at them very squarely.