Clara hesitated, checking the word upon her lips, for with her former friend, to be inelegant was to be sincere.
"I do not understand," she substituted prudently.
"To think, my dear, of you being the first of us to capture Horace Hopworthy and keeping it from me!" cried Maude.
"I am sure I mentioned that we hoped to have him," murmured Mrs. Fessenden.
"So sweet of you to give us such a surprise, it was most delightful," Lena Livingston drawled.
"Your house is always such a Joppa for successful genius," declared Mrs. Ballington, "or is it Mecca? I've forgotten which. How did you come to know he was in town?"
"Jack's relatives in Boston always send us the most charming people with letters," answered Clara. "Shall we take coffee on the balcony? The men are laughing so in the smoking-room we can't talk here with any comfort."
Later—an hour later—when the last carriage-door had slammed, Jack lit a cigarette and said:
"That Hoppy fellow seemed to make a hit."