The telephone in the booth under the stairs in the entrance hall rang faintly. He reached for the extension telephone on the living room table and said: “Yes, Maisie?”
“How did you know it was I?” Maisie’s voice demanded.
“I cannot answer that question, Maisie. I merely knew. You see, I was just beginning to think that I might have called you up and——”
“Indeed, yes,” she interrupted. How like her, he reflected. Her agile brain was always leaping ahead to a conclusion and landing on it fairly and squarely. “I have waited three hours for a report from you, Dan, and when eleven o’clock came and you had not telephoned I couldn’t restrain my curiosity any longer. Mrs. Pippy telephoned about seven o’clock and told me an extraordinary and unbelievable tale of a semi-savage young woman whom you had brought home and established as a guest in your bachelor domicile. Mrs. Pippy tried her best to appear calm, but I sensed——”
“I’m quite certain you did, Maisie,” he interrupted in turn. “You sensed Mrs. Pippy’s amazement, indignation and disapproval. You’re the most marvelous woman for sensing things that I have ever known.”
“But then, Dan,” she reminded him, “you haven’t known very many women intimately. You’re such a shy man. Sometimes I think you must have gleaned all of your knowledge of my sex from your father and Sooey Wan. Who is the South Sea belle, Dan, and what do you mean by picking up with such a creature and expecting me to help you render her presentable?”
“I didn’t expect you to, Maisie. I didn’t ask you and I didn’t suggest that Mrs. Pippy ask you.”
“I couldn’t get any very coherent information from Mrs. Pippy. She was greatly agitated. However, I called Julia up a few minutes later and from Julia I learned that your guest hasn’t sufficient of a wardrobe to pad a crutch.”
“Julia is very amusing,” he replied evenly. “However, do not think the young lady arrived here in a hula-hula costume. I am her guardian.”
“How do you know you are?” Maisie demanded, a bit crisply.