who they were?
Another thing had impressed her: The stranger had mentioned these
notables with no especial emphasis on the names; but instead, quite
casually and in a manner which carried with it the impression that such
noted folk as Mrs. Denton and her distinguished father, and Freddy Urb
the court jester of the innermost holies of holies of Newport and Bar
Harbor and Palm Beach, and Mrs. Gordon-Tracy, the famous beauty, were of
the sort with whom customarily he associated. Plainly here was a
gentleman who not only belonged to the who's-who but had a very clear
perception of the what-was-what. So fluttered little Mrs. Propbridge
promptly said yes--said it with a gratified sensation in her heart.

"That's fine of you!" said Murrill, visibly elated. It would appear
that small favors were to him great pleasures. "That's splendid!
Up until now the joke of this thing has been on me. I want to
transfer it to them. I'm to meet them up here in the lounge of the
Churchill-Fontenay."

"That's where I am stopping," said Mrs. Propbridge.

"Is it? Better and better! We might stroll along that way if you don't
mind. By Jove, I've an idea! Suppose when they arrive they found us
chatting together like old friends--suppose as they came up they were to
overhear me calling you Mrs. Beeman Watrous. That would make the shock
all the greater for them when they found out you really weren't Mrs.
Watrous at all, but somebody they'd never seen before! Are you game for
it?... Capital! Only, if we mean to do that we'll have to kill the time,
some way, for forty or fifty minutes or so. Do you mind letting me bore
you for a little while? I know it's unconventional--but I like to do the
unconventional things when they don't make one conspicuous."

Mrs. Propbridge did not in the least mind. So they killed the time and
it died a very agreeable death, barring one small incident. On Mr.
Murrill's invitation they took a short turn in a double-seated roller
chair, Mr. Murrill chatting briskly all the while and savoring his
conversation with offhand reference to this well-known personage and
that. At his suggestion they quit the wheel chair at a point well down
the boardwalk to drink orangeades in a small glass-fronted cafe which
faced the sea. He had heard somewhere, he said, that they made famous
orangeades in this shop. They might try for themselves and find out.

The experiment was not entirely a success. To begin with, a waiter
person--Mr. Murr