"We'll do something with it all right," Sube declared sullenly. "That ol' second-hand man ain't the only one who can buy things."
"Well, what'll we do with it then?" asked Gizzard.
Sube made no immediate answer. He didn't know himself. But he felt an idea coming, and he struggled hard to reach into the infinite and grasp it.
And in the meantime, at an afternoon bridge given by Mrs. Prentice Y. Prentice, Sube's mother had heard for the first time of the Belgian relief work being carried on in her name.
"Oh, it can't be possible," she said; "somebody must have made a mistake. Of course, I am thoroughly in sympathy with the Belgians, you know; every one is. But, really, I haven't been able to find a moment to devote to any such work."
"You haven't!" called Mrs. Potter from an adjoining table. "Why, my dear! Your name was distinctly mentioned at our house. Celeste came straight from the door and said that the messengers from Mrs. Cane had come to see what I could give to the suffering Belgians. And I sent you the most gorgeous silk slumber-robe, one that I picked up in Paris. Do you mean to say that you never got it?"
Mrs. Cane was quite overcome. "Why, I never heard of such a thing!" she exclaimed. "Who could have done such an underhanded trick?"
"Some swindlers, without a doubt," Mrs. Rice put in. "Just to think of making those poor Belgians the excuse for a lot of fraud. Why, I gave them a beautiful pair of Mr. Rice's shoes, broadcloth tops, you know. I don't know what he'll say when he finds they're gone; and if he should ever discover that the Belgians didn't get them after all—well, I'd never hear the last of it! And you know that Mrs. Van Auken who lives next door—of course you don't know her; I don't myself; but you know who she is—well, I saw her handing out one of her husband's race-track plaid suits. That ought to be easy to trace!"
At every table Mrs. Cane found one or more victims of the fraud, and little else was talked of wherever she was. When the party finally broke up she was in a high state of agitation.
"You're all upset, dear," said Mrs. Potter who had come up to her in the dressing room. "You must let me take you home in my new motor. The ride will brace you up wonderfully."