Mrs. Hannay called in Prior Street, at stated intervals, to see Edith and the baby.  On these occasions Anne, if taken unaware by Mrs. Hannay, was always perfect and polite, but when she knew that Mrs. Hannay was coming, she contrived adroitly to be out.  Her attitude to the Hannays was one of the things she undoubtedly meant to keep up.  The natural result was that Majendie was driven to an increasing friendliness, by way of making up for the slights the poor things had to endure from his wife.  He was always meaning to remonstrate with Anne, and always putting off the uncomfortable moment.  The subject was so mixed with painful matters that he shrank from handling it.  But, with the New Year following Peggy’s first birthday, circumstances forced him to take, once for all, a firm stand.  Certain entanglements in the affairs of Mr. Gorst had called for his intervention.  There had been important developments in his own business; Majendie was about to enter into partnership with Mr. Hannay.  And Anne had given him an opportunity for protest by expressing her unqualified disapprobation of Mrs. Hannay.  Mrs. Hannay had offended grossly; she had passed the limits; having no instincts, Anne maintained, to tell her where to stop.  Mrs. Hannay had a passion for Peggy which she was wholly unable to conceal.  Moved by a tender impulse of vicarious motherhood, she had sent her at Christmas a present of a little coat.  Anne had acknowledged the gift in a note so frigid that it cut Mrs. Hannay to the heart.  She had wept over it, and had been found weeping by her husband, who mentioned the incident to Majendie.

It was more than Majendie could bear; and that night, in the drawing-room (Anne had left off sitting in the study.  She said it smelt of smoke), he entered on an explanation, full, brief, and clear.

“I must ask you,” he said, “to behave a little better to poor Mrs. Hannay.  You’ve never known her anything but kind, and sweet, and forgiving; and your treatment of her has been simply barbarous.”

“Indeed?”

“I think so.  There are reasons why you will have to ask the Hannays to dinner next week, and reasons why you will have to be nice to them.”

“What reasons?”

“One’s enough.  I’m going into partnership with Lawson Hannay.”

She stared.  The announcement was a blow to her.

“Is that a reason why I should make a friend of Mrs. Hannay?”

“It’s a reason why you should be civil to her.  You will send an invitation to Gorst at the same time.”

She winced.  “That I cannot do.”

“You can, dear, and you will.  Gorst’s in a pretty bad way.  I knew he would be.  He’s got entangled now with some wretched girl, and I’ve got to disentangle him.  The only way to do it is to get him to come here again.”

“And I am to write to him?” Her tone proclaimed the idea preposterous.

“It will come best from you, as it’s you who have kept him out of the house.  You must, please, put your own feelings aside, and simply do what I ask you.”