A fight seemed imminent.
"Did you wish to see Mr. Bennett?" asked the precocious Milton
politely on one hand while on the other he made a wry grimace.
"Yes--here is my card," replied the woman.
It was deeply bordered in black. Even Milton was startled at
reading it: "Mrs. Taylor Dodge."
He looked at the woman in open-mouthed astonishment. Even he knew
that Elaine's mother had been dead for years.
The woman, however, true to her name in the artistic coterie in
which she was leader, had sunk into a chair and was sobbing
convulsively, as only "Weepy Mary" could.
It was so effective that even Milton was visibly moved. He took
the card in, excitedly, to Bennett.
"There's a woman outside--says she is Mrs. Dodge!" he cried.
If Milton had had an X-ray eye he could have seen her take a
cigarette from her handbag and light it nonchalantly the moment he
was gone.
As for Bennett, Milton, who was watching him closely, thought he
was about to discharge him on the spot for bothering him. He took
the card, and his face expressed the most extreme surprise, then
anger. He thought a moment.
"Tell that woman to state her business in writing," he thundered
curtly at Milton.
As the boy turned to go back to the waiting room, Weepy Mary,
hearing him coming, hastily shoved the cigarette into her "son's"
hand.
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