He put one hand into the breast pocket of his coat and pulled out an envelope.
“DEAR VIOLA,--Holme tells me you made a mistake when you accepted my invitation for the first, and that you have long been pledged to be present on that date at some theatrical performance or other. I am sorry I did not know sooner, but of course I release you with pleasure from your engagement with me, and I have already filled up your places.--Believe me, yours always sincerely,
Lady Holme read this note carefully, folded it up, laid it quietly on the writing-table and repeated:
“You’ve made Martha Brayley my enemy for life.”
She stopped. It was wiser not to go on. Perhaps her face spoke for her, even to so dull an observer as Lord Holme, for he suddenly said, with a complete change of tone:
“Oh, I see! You want a _quid pro quo_. Thank you, Fritz.”
“Don’t forget to tip Lady Brayley a note of thanks,” he said rather loudly, getting up from his chair.
“Oh, thanks! You certainly ought to be an ambassador--at the court of some savage monarch.”
He said nothing, but walked out of the room whistling the refrain about Ina.
When he had gone Lady Holme sat down and wrote two notes. One was to Lady Brayley and was charmingly apologetic, saying that the confusion was entirely owing to Fritz’s muddle-headedness, and that she was in despair at her misfortune--which was almost literally true. The other was to Sir Donald Ulford, begging him to join them in their box on the first, and asking whether it was possible to persuade Mr. and Mrs. Leo Ulford to come with him. If he thought so she would go at once and leave cards on Mrs. Ulford, whom she was longing to know.
Both notes went off by hand before lunch.
THE Ulfords accepted for the first. Lady Holme left cards on Mrs. Leo and told her husband that the box was filled up. He received the information with indifference. So long as his wife was there to please Miss Schley, and Mr. Laycock to “give her a hand and show ‘em all whether she was popular,” he was satisfied. Having gained his point, he was once again in excellent humour. Possibly Lady Holme would have appreciated his large gaieties more if she had not divined their cause. But she expressed no dissatisfaction with them, and indeed increased them by her own brilliant serenity during the days that intervened between the Martha Brayley incident and the first night.