mother could have been thinking of. I won't object to her coming this once, but it mustn't happen again. We owe it to Gordon to keep her in the background."
Noel left it at that. He never argued with his mother.
Gordon had reckoned without his Helen, who prided herself on being modern. When he told her he would rather she dined there the following night, she wanted to know the reason.
"Not that beautiful Mrs. Humphries who ran off with Petrovitch? I'd quite forgotten she was your aunt. What nonsense, Gordon! Of course I shall come. As if her past made the slightest difference to me! I hear she's still quite lovely."
Gordon reported this new development to his mother in his own way.
"Helen's been awfully nice about it," Millie told her husband later. "She told Gordon she didn't mind meeting Connie at all, and that as she was marrying into the family she intended taking the rough with the smooth. She's such a sensible girl!"
