She dropped behind with Fielding.
'You didn't know that Mr.Mallinson was ill ?' she asked.

'Did none of his friends know except Connie ?' and then there was a perceptible accent of pique in her voice.
Fielding did not answer the question immediately.

He had been brought of a sudden to the vexatious conclusion that Mrs.Willoughby was a coquette just like the rest of her trivial sex--no better, indeed, than the girl at his side, whose first anxiety was not as to whether Mallinson was seriously ill, but why he wrote the information to Mrs.Willoughby.

He felt that Mrs.Willoughby had no right to trifle with Mallinson.

The poor fellow had already suffered his full share of that kind of experience.
Miss Le Mesurier repeated her question impatiently, and Fielding suddenly realised that Miss Le Mesurier's pique might prove useful in setting matters right.