or organization was never better exemplified
than next day, when preparations for the ball set for the night, began.
At the outset it was perfectly apparent that she was not bent on
breaking records--which feat, as a matter of fact, would merely have
been overshadowing her best previous demonstrations of supremacy in
things of this sort. There was to be no splurge. With a high European
nobleman to introduce, she had no intention of having the protagonist
in the evening's function overshadowed by his background. She was a
student of social nuances--say rather, a master in this subtle art, and
she proceeded with her plans with all the calm assurance of a field
marshal with a dozen successful campaigns behind him.

Early in the day, Dawson and Buchan and Mrs. Stetson were in conference
with her in her office and a bit later the servants, some thirty or
forty of them, were assembled in their dining-room and assigned various
duties, all of which were performed under the supervising eye of Mrs.
Wellington, her daughter, or Sara Van Valkenberg. No decorative
specialist, or other alien appendage to social functions on a large
scale, was in attendance, and, save for the caterer's men, who arranged
a hundred odd small tables on the verandas, and the electricians, who
hung chandeliers at intervals above them, the arrangements were carried
out by the household force.

Under the direction of Anne Wellington--whose mind seemed fully
occupied with the manifold details of the duties which her mother had
assigned to her--Armitage and a small group hung tapestries against the
side of the house where the tables were, and then assisted the gardener
and his staff in placing gladiolas about the globes of the chandeliers.
Small incandescent globes of divers colors were hidden among the
flowers in the gardens and an elaborate scheme of interior floral
decoration was carried out. Before the afternoon was well along, all
preparations had been completed and the women had gone to their rooms,
where later they were served by their maids with light suppers.
Armitage went to town in the car to meet the Prince, whom he had taken
from The Crags at the unusually early hour of nine o'clock, and
incidentally to pick up his evening clothes, which Thornton, in
accordance with telephoned instructions, had left with the marine guard
at the Government ferry house.

For Mrs. Wellington, whose sardonic sense of humor had not been lost in
the rush of affa