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 CHAPTER VIII

A BUSY MORNING

I

The next morning was a busy one for his Grace, and it also marked a tide in the affairs of Bridport House. Soon after ten the ball opened with the inauspicious arrival of Lady Wargrave. The head of the Family had just unfolded his newspaper and put on his spectacles when her ladyship was announced.

As the redoubtable Charlotte entered the room, the hard glitter of her eyes and the forward thrust of a dominant chin were ominous indeed. Bitter experience made her brother only too keenly alive to these portents.

Without any beating about the bush she came at once to the point.

"What's this I hear, Johnnie? Sarah tells me you have revoked that woman's notice."

"Woman!" temporized his Grace. "What woman?" The tone was velvet.

She glowered at him.

"There's only one woman in this household, my friend."

The Duke laid down his Times with an air of extremely well assumed indifference. Were the parish pump and the minor domesticities all she could find to