To refuse the stately offer would have been to insult. Mr. Haim
had aged, but not greatly.
"You're wanted on the telephone, Mr. Cannon."
"Oh! Dash it!... Thanks!"
After all George was no longer on the staff of Lucas & Enwright, and Mr.
Haim was conferring a favour.
Down below in the big office everybody had gone except the factotum.
George seized the telephone receiver and called brusquely for attention.
"Is that Mr. Cannon?"
"Yes. Who is it?"
"Oh! It's you, George! How nice to hear your voice again!"
He recognized, but not instantly, the voice of Lois Ingram. He was not
surprised. Indeed he had suspected that the disturber of work must be
either Lois or Miss Wheeler, or possibly Laurencine. The three had been
in London again for several days, and he had known from Lucas that a
theatre-party had been arranged for that night to witness the
irresistible musical comedy, _The Gay Spark_, Lucas and M.
Defourcambault were to be of the party. George had not yet seen Lois
since her latest return to London; he had only seen her twice since the
previous summer; he had not visited Paris in the interval. The tone of
her voice, even as transformed by the telephone, was caressing. He had
to think of some suitable response to her startling amiability, and to
utter it with conviction.
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