“Is this Miss Eppendorfer?” enquired a high, loud voice with an exaggerated London accent. “Oh, her secretary! Very well! You will please to tell Miss Eppendorfer that her cousin Kurt Hassler from Hamburg is here, and would like to call.”
“She’s not awake yet,” Frances explained, “but if you’ll leave your number——”
“The Ritz,” he replied haughtily. “Find it in the telephone directory. I am here until one.”
She had scarcely replaced the receiver when Miss Eppendorfer opened the door of her room and stood smiling absent-mindedly at her.
“I thought I heard the telephone,” she said.
“You did. It was your cousin from Hamburg. He wants to see you.”
Miss Eppendorfer became immensely excited, and insisted upon Frankie’s calling him up at once.
“I’m too nervous,” she said. “Tell him to come to-night for dinner at seven.”
He accepted the invitation, and the authoress was delighted.
“I haven’t seen him since he was a child,” she told Frankie, “but I’ve heard lots about him. He went to Heidelberg, and then he went into his father’s business and he’s done wonderfully well, they say. He speaks English, French and Spanish perfectly.”