Mattingly had the good grace to look sheepish. He mouthed another apology. St. Clare didn’t regard it. The truth of the matter was that Astrid Mattingly was the least offensive female in the box. The dowager’s granddaughters were a pair of giggling henwits, and the other young lady, a Miss Louisa Steele, had all the charm of a viper that had once crawled into his tent while camping in the Egyptian desert.
