"Yours, I think," he said.

Mrs.Van Dorn took them with an idiotic expression, and he asked again if they had seen the ladies.
The spectacle of two elderly, well-dressed females of Banbridge quaking before him in this wise, and of their sudden appearance in his house, was a mystery too great to be grasped at once even by a clever man, and he was certainly a clever man.

So he stared for a second, while the two remained standing before him, holding their card-cases in their shaking, white-gloved fingers, and Mrs.Van Dorn with the violets; then suddenly an expression of the most delighted comprehension and amusement overspread his face.
"Oh," he said, politely, with a great flourish, as it were of deference, "the ladies are not in.

They will be exceedingly sorry to have missed your call.

But will you not come in and sit down ?" Mrs.Van Dorn gained voice enough to gasp that she thought they must go.