as in full
feather, Henriette, looking very pale and wan, tearfully confessed to me
that business had got on her nerves and that she was going away to a
rest-cure on the Hudson for ten days.

"I just can't stand it for another minute, Bunny," she faltered, real
tears coursing down her cheeks. "I haven't slept a wink of natural
sleep for five days, and yet when night comes it is all I can do to keep
my eyes open. At the Rockerbilt ball last night I dozed off four times
while talking with the Duchess of Snarleyow, and when the Chinese
Ambassador asked me to sit out the gavotte with him I'm told I actually
snored in his face. A woman who can't keep awake all night and sleep
properly by day is not fit for Newport society, and I've simply got to
go away and get my nerve back again."

"You are very wise," I replied, "and I wholly approve of your course.
There is no use of trying to do too much and you have begun to show the
strain to which you have been subjecting yourself. Your failure last
Friday night to land Mrs. Gollet's ruby dog-collar when her French
poodle sat in your lap all through the Gaster musicale is evidence to me
that your mind is not as alert as usual. By all means, go away and rest
up. I'll take care of things around here."

"Thank you, dear," said she, with a grateful smile. "You need a change
too, Bunny. What would you say if I sent all the servants away too, so
that you could have a week of absolute tranquillity? It must be awful
for a man of your refined sensibilities to have to associate so
constantly with the housemaids, the under-butlers and the footmen."

"Nothing would please me better," I returned with alacrity; for, to tell
the truth, society below stairs was rapidly becoming caviar to my taste.
The housemaids were all right, and the under-butlers, being properly
subject to my control, I could wither when they grew too familiar, but
the footmen were intolerable guyers. On more than one occasion their
quick Irish wit had put me to my trumps to maintain my dignity, and I
had noticed of late that their alleged fun at my expense had made even
the parlormaid giggle in a most irritating fashion. Henriette's
suggestion promised at least a week's immunity from this sort of thing,
and as far as remaining alone in the beautiful Bolivar Lodge was
concerned, to a man of my literary and artistic tastes nothing could be
more desirable.

"I can put in a week of solitude here very comfortably," said I. "The