"I know it was silly of me having Oliver to dinner here alone--" said
Mrs. Severance with the air of one ready to apologize for a very minor
impropriety. "Silly and wrong--but Louise was coming too until she
telephoned about Jane Ellen's little upset--and I thought we could have
such fun getting supper together with Elizabeth away. I get a little tired
of _always_ entertaining my friends in restaurants, Sargent, especially
when I want to talk to them without having to shout. And _really_ I never
_imagined_--"
She looked steadily at Mr. Piper and he seemed to shrink a little under her
gaze.
"As for Elizabeth," he said with hurried vindictiveness, "Elizabeth shall
leave tomorrow morning. She--"
"Oh, we might as well keep her, Sargent," said Mrs. Severance placidly.
"You will have to pay her blackmail, of course--but after all that's really
your fault a little, isn't it?--and it seems as if that was more or
less what you had to do with any kind of passable servant nowadays. And
Elizabeth is perfection--as a servant. As police--" she smiled a little
cruelly. "Well, we shan't go into that, but I think it would be so much
better to keep her.
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