o give her a hint of what awaited her, but Mrs. Shadd forestalled me,
only however to be forestalled herself.

"Oh, my dear Pauline!" Henriette cried, as she espied her waiting
visitor. "It is _so_ good of you to come over. I'm pretty well fagged
out with all the arrangements for the night and I _do_ hope your son is
better."

"My son is not ill, Mrs. Van Raffles," said Mrs. Shadd, coldly. "I have
come to ask you what--"

"Not ill?" cried Henriette, interrupting her. "Not ill, Pauline?
Why,"--breathlessly--"that's the most extraordinary thing I ever heard
of. Why am _I_ giving the musicale to-night then, instead of you?"

"That is precisely what I have come to find out," said Mrs. Shadd.

"Why--well, of all queer things," said Henriette, flopping down in a
chair. "Surely, you got my note saying that I would let Jockobinski play
here to-night instead of--"

"I did receive a very peculiar note from you saying that you would
gladly do as I wished," said Mrs. Shadd, beginning herself to look less
angry and more puzzled.

"In reply to your note of Wednesday evening," said Henriette. "Certainly
you wrote to me Wednesday evening? It was delivered by your own man,
Blunderby I think his name is? About half-past seven o'clock it
was--Wednesday."

"Yes, Bunderby did carry a note to you from me on Wednesday," said Mrs.
Shadd. "But--"

"And in it you said that you were called to Boston by an accident to
your son Willie in his automobile: that you might not be able to get
back in time for to-night's affair and wouldn't I take it over,"
protested Mrs. Van Raffles, vehemently.

"I?" said Mrs. Shadd, showing more surprise than was compatible with her
high social position.

"And attend to all the details--your very words, my dear Pauline," said
Henriette, with an admirably timed break in her voice. "And I did, and
_I told you I would_. I immediately put on my travelling gown, motored
to Providence, had an all-night ride to New York on a very uncomfortable
sleeper, went at once to Herr Jockobinski's agent and arranged the
change, notified Sherry to send the supper to my house instead of yours,
drove to Tiffany's and had the cards rushed through and mailed to
everybody on your list--you know you kindly gave me your list when I
first came to Newport--and attended to the whole thing, and now I come
back to find it all a--er--a mistake! Why, Pauline, it's positively
awful! What _can_ we do?"

Henriette was a perfect picture of