"Never!" said Mrs. Shadd, rising and kissing Henriette good-bye. "That's the best way out of it. If we did we'd be the laughing-stock of all Newport. But some day in the distant future Tommy Dare would better look out for Pauline Shadd, Mrs. Van Raffles."
And so it was agreed, and Henriette successfully landed Mrs. Shadd's musicale.
Incidentally, Jockobinski was very affable and the function went off well. Everybody was there and no one would for a moment have thought that there was anything strange in the transfer of the scene from Onyx House to Bolivar Lodge.
"Who wrote that letter, Henriette?" I asked late in the evening when the last guest had gone.
"Who do you suppose, Bunny, my boy?" she asked with a grin. "Bunderby?"
"No," said I.
"You've guessed right," said Henriette.
As a postscript let me say that until he reads this I don't believe Tommy Dare ever guessed what a successful joke he perpetrated upon Mrs. Shadd and the fair Henriette. Even then I doubt if he realizes what a good one it was on—everybody.