might have detected.

'Colonel Innes got the telegram this morning. She wired from Brindisi,'
Mrs. Gammidge said.

'Does he seem pleased?' asked Mrs. Mickie, demurely.

'He said he was afraid she would find it very hot coming up here from
Bombay. And, of course, he is worried about a house. When a man has been
living for months at the Club--'

'Of course, poor fellow! I do love that dear old Colonel Innes, though I
can't say I know him a bit. He won't take the trouble to be nice to me,
but I am perfectly certain he must be the dearest old thing inside
of him. Worth any dozen of these little bow-wows that run round after
rickshaws,' said Mrs. Mickie, with candour.

'I think he's a ridiculous old glacier,' Mrs. Gammidge remarked, and
Mrs. Mickie looked at Madeline and said, 'Slap her!'

'What for?' asked Miss Anderson, with composure. 'I dare say he
is--occasionally. It isn't a bad thing to be, I should think, in Indian
temperatures.'

'I guess you got it that time, dear lady,' said Mrs. Mickie to Mrs.
Gammidge, as Madeline slipped toward the door.

'Meant to be cross, did she? How silly of her! If she gives her little
heart away like that often, people will begin to make remarks.'

'The worst of that girl is,' Mrs. Mickie continued, 'that you never can
depend upon her. For days together she'll be just as giddy and jolly as
anybody and then suddenly she'll give you a nasty superior bit of
ice down the back of your neck like that. I've got her coming to tea
tomorrow afternoon,' Mrs. Mickie added, with sudden gloom, 'and little
Lord Billy and all that set are coming. They'll throw buns at each
other--I know they will. What, in heaven's name, made me ask her?'

'Oh, she'll have recovered by then. You must make allowance for the
shock we gave her, poor dear. Consider how you would feel if Lady
Worsley suddenly appeared upon the scene, and demanded devotion from Sir
Frank.'

'She wouldn't get it,' Mrs. Mickie dimpled candidly. 'Frank always loses
his heart and his conscience at the same time. But you don't suppose
there's anything serious in this affair? Pure pretty platonics, I should
call it.'

Mrs. Gammidge lifted her eyebrows. 'I dare say that is what they imagine
it. Well, they're never in the same room for two minutes without being
aware of it, and their absorption when they get in a corner--I saw her
keep the Viceroy waiting, the other night after dinner, while Colonel
Innes finished a sentence. And then