me all through the evening.
I awoke in the night from troubled dreams of her to equally troubled
thoughts concerning her. And my concern was complicated by a message
which Dicky received the next forenoon.

We had barely finished breakfast when the telephone rang and Dicky
answered.

"Hello," I heard him say. "Yes, this is Graham. Oh! Mr. Gordon! how do
you do?"

My heart skipped a beat.

"Why! that's awfully kind of you," Dicky was saying, "but we couldn't
possibly accept, because we have guests coming ourselves. We expect to
have a regular old-fashioned country dinner here at home. But, why
do you not come out to us? Oh, no, you wouldn't disturb any plans at
all--they've been thoroughly upset already. We had planned to have
my sister and her family, six in all, spend this holiday with us, but
yesterday we found they could not come. So we're inviting what friends
we can find who are not otherwise engaged to help us eat up the
turkey. You will be more than welcome if you will join us. All right,
then. Do you know about trains? Yes, any taxi driver can tell you
where we are. Good-by."

I did not dare to look at my mother-in-law as Dicky came toward us
after answering Robert Gordon's telephone message.

I think Dicky was a trifle afraid, also, of his mother's verdict, for
his attitude was elaborately apologetic as he explained his invitation
to me.

"Your friend, Gordon, has just gotten in from one of those mysterious
voyages of his to parts unknown," he said. "He was delayed in reaching
the city, only got in last night, too late to telephone us. Seems
he had some cherished scheme of having us his guests at a blowout.
Wouldn't mind going if we hadn't asked these people here, for they say
his little dinners are something to dream about, they're so unique. Of
course, there was nothing else for me to do but to invite him out. I
thought you wouldn't mind."

In Dicky's tone there was a doubtful inflection which I read
correctly. He knew of my interest in the elderly man of mystery who
had known my parents so well, and I was sure that he thought I would
be overjoyed because he had extended the invitation.

I was glad that I could honestly disabuse his mind of this idea, for I
had a curious little feeling that Dicky disliked more than he appeared
to do the attentions paid to me by Mr. Gordon.

It was less than an hour before the taxi bearing the first of our
guests swung into the driveway and Lillian and Harry Und