don't want you to think, Mrs. Lockwood, that because I have to refuse
your first request I'm going back on our contract. There'll be plenty of
other opportunities."

He caught her sigh of relief across the line. When she spoke again it
was with a new brightness and reasonableness. "I'm glad you said that.
So you really are going to help me? I was a wee bit afraid that you'd
gone back on your bargain by the way you ran away."

It was his first experience of the advantage a woman gains when she
attacks a man from the other end of a telephone. He had trouble in
making his voice sound patient. He replied with conscious hypocrisy,
"I'm sorry I created the impression of running away."

"You did." Her answer came back promptly. "You created the same
impression on us both. I had to do a lot of explaining to Di."

"And I was trying to save you embarrassment," he excused himself.

"Eh! What's that?"

To his immense surprise a third voice--a man's--jumped in on the
conversation. "Are you there? Is this Lord Taborley?"

Tabs was just getting ready to confess that he was there and that he was
Lord Taborley, when Maisie took matters out of his hands by informing
the intruder that the line was occupied and that he was interrupting a
conversation.

"I'm sorry," the intruder apologized, "but my time's valuable. I've been
kept waiting for the best part of quarter of an hour. Are you the
telephone-girl that I'm talking to?"

"Indeed I'm not," said Maisie with considerable haughtiness. "Please get
off the line." And then to Tabs, "Are you still there, Lord Taborley?
This is Mrs. Lockwood. Can't you postpone some of those engagements so
that we can meet to-day?"

At that moment the girl at the switch-board took a hand. There was a
confused gabbling and buzzing of voices, out of which the suave tones of
the intruder emerged triumphant, saying, "This is Sir Tobias Beddow. Can
I speak with Lord Taborley?"

Perhaps Maisie had heard. At all events, the moment Sir Tobias declared
himself the line cleared.

But it wasn't what Maisie had overheard that disturbed Tabs; it was the
uncertainty as to how much of her conversation had been listened to by
Sir Tobias. After all, prospective fathers-in-law are only human and as
likely as any other class to jump to damaging conclusions. Tabs hung up
the receiver, making it necessary for him to be summoned afresh before
he acknowledged his presence at the 'phone. Then, "Good morning, Sir
Tobia