It is impossible to make a fully accurate report of this interview. The messages were confused and broken, and there were many monosyllabic replies to questions not recorded.
At one time we asked about Anne Lowe, and Mary said: “Anne is not here. She is a lovely character. She works for children.... Manse is not there.... Manse is out.... He will answer.... He is not there.”
Eventually the long-distance operator reported that Mr. Kendal was not at his club and was not expected.
I asked Mary why she had said that he was there, telling her that this was making me doubt my powers of correct transmission, to which she replied that this was better than too much credulity, adding: “Manse is there.... He is out of the club.... He must be there.”
We called up the —— Club a second time and I talked to the clerk, who said Mansfield Kendal was not registered there, nor had they been notified that he was coming. Long afterward we learned that he had expected to be there at that time, but had been detained in the Northwest by business.
Meanwhile, there was much confused writing from Mary. “Manse is in the club.... He is not there.... He must be there.... He is out.” Effort to write the name of a city was followed by, “Minneapolis recently.... Manse will be there soon.”
It was Mansfield Kendal himself who ultimately arrived at a possible explanation of some of these apparent inaccuracies, Mary having explained others meanwhile. But at the time it was all very contradictory and confusing, and after dinner Cass demanded an explanation.
Mary Kendal came at once, admitting that she had been wrong in saying that Mansfield was at the club, and asserting that she “thought he would be.”
“Didn’t you know?”
“No.”