"I knew she would come!" cried Charmian. "Though they all pretended she was going to winter at Cap Martin."
"And she's brought Susan Fleet with her."
"Susan!"
"But read what she says. It seems to have all been quite unexpected, a sudden caprice."
"You poor thing!" said Charmian, looking at him with pitiful eyes. "When will you begin to understand?"
"What?"
"Us."
Claude sent a glance so keen that it was almost like a dart at Charmian. But she did not see it for she was reading the letter.
"The Ritz-Carlton Hotel,
Friday.
"Dear Mr. Heath,—I've just arrived with Susan Fleet on the Philadelphia. I heard such reports of the excitement over your opera out here that I suddenly felt I must run over. After all you told me about it at Constantine I'm naturally interested. Do be nice and let me into a rehearsal. I never take sides in questions of art, and though of course I'm a friend of the Senniers, I'm really praying for you to have a triumph. Surely the sky has room for two stars. What nonsense all this Press got-up rivalry is. Don't believe a word you see in the papers about Henriette and your libretto. She knows nothing whatever about it, of course. Such rubbish! Susan is pining to see her beloved Charmian. Can't you both lunch with us at Sherry's to-morrow at one o'clock? Love to Charmian.—Yours very sincerely,