And a will was wanted, sure, to wait six long and weary days for the promised letter of Elmer P.
The six days of waiting were not so long and weary as they might have been. To begin with, they were full of the joys of anticipation. The anticipation, moreover, took more forms than one. As if to show how little Miss Du Rance and her sponsor had to fear in the way of displeasure in high places, there came by post, within an hour of the cable from New York, a real gilt-edged command to the second Royal garden party to be held at Buckingham Palace on the fifth of July.
The “command” tried the democratic spirit of Miss Du Rance severely. Even in the most vaulting moments of her optimism she had not seen herself moving in Royal circles quite so soon as all that. She was nearly betrayed into a whoop of elation. Cuckoo, yes, but somehow it expressed her oddly democratic feeling. However, she was able to pull herself up just in time. What were kings and queens, anyway? Still she could not help giving her amused friend a tentative hug.
“Please don’t put the bear-cat act over on me,” expostulated Lady Violet, who had devoted a good deal of the last four weeks to a study of Mame’s idiom.
“It’s a long way to the fifth of July, any old how,” said Maine with stern self-control. “And I’ll bet our noo ambassaderess don’t invite me to the carol singing and the fireworks on the Fourth at the Embassy. Even if good Queen Mary ain’t scared of me, she’ll be, I guess.”
“It ought to be easy to wangle a card for an American citizeness. How much will you bet?”
“I don’t approve betting.” Mame had too much respect for her friend’s astonishing powers of “wangling.” “But if you can get me an invite for the Fourth among all the doughnuts and the high-fliers and the hundred-per-cents I’ll be that set up I’ll not know where to hide my simple face.”
Lady Violet promised modestly to see if anything could be done in the matter.
One way and another Mame contrived to get through those intervening days pretty well; yet it seemed that the eagerly awaited letter from New York would never arrive. Her imagination could not help playing around it. The cable had excited great hopes.