foreign houses--"

The tigress opened her mouth for fresh assault. Mr. Chater hurriedly
thrust in a bone. "I don't say he hasn't done a great deal for us--not
at all; I'd be the last to say that. What I say is that in duty to my
partners I must take the first opportunity to ask him a few questions
about it. Bob sees that himself; don't you, Bob?"

"Oh, do let's keep shop off the table," Bob snarled. "Fair sickens me
this never getting away from the office."

"There you are!" Mrs. Chater cried. "There you are! Always business,
business, business--that's what _I_ complain of."

With astounding recklessness Mr. Chater mildly said: "My dear, you
started it."

Mrs. Chater quivered: "Ah, put it on me! Put it on me! Somehow you
always manage to do that. Miss Humfray, when you've _quite_ finished
your soup _then_ perhaps Clarence can take the plates."

Mary's thoughts, to the neglect of her duty, had crept away beneath
cover of these exchanges. Now she endured the disaster of amid silence
clearing her plate with four pairs of eyes fixed upon her. Clarence
removed the course; Mr. Chater, leaping as far as possible from the
scene of his ordeal, broke a new topic.

He enticed tentatively: "I saw a funny bit in the paper this morning."

The tigress paused in the projection of another spring; sniffed