nken roisterer have
selected her mother, of all other women in the dining-room, for the
object of these outrageous remarks? Why should her mother be stricken,
so utterly collapsed, if there were not some truth in what he had said?
It was very strange, very sad, very grim, very horrible. What would
that gossiping, scandal-loving world of which she knew so much say to a
scene like this? For the first time in her life the import and horror
of social ostracism flashed upon her.

The following morning, owing to a visit paid to the Jefferson Market
Police Court by Lieutenant Braxmar, where he proposed, if satisfaction
were not immediately guaranteed, to empty cold lead into Mr. Beales
Chadsey's stomach, the following letter on Buckingham stationery was
written and sent to Mrs. Ira George Carter--36 Central Park South:

DEAR MADAM:

Last evening, owing to a drunken debauch, for which I have no
satisfactory or suitable explanation to make, I was the unfortunate
occasion of an outrage upon your feelings and those of your daughter
and friends, for which I wish most humbly to apologize. I cannot tell
you how sincerely I regret whatever I said or did, which I cannot now
clearly recall. My mental attitude when drinking is both contentious
and malicious, and while in this mood and state I was the author of
statements which I know to be wholly unfounded. In my drunken stupor I
mistook you for a certain notorious woman of Louisville--why, I have
not the slightest idea. For this wholly shameful and outrageous
conduct I sincerely ask your pardon--beg your forgiveness. I do not
know what amends I can make, but anything you may wish to suggest I
shall gladly do. In the mean while I hope you will accept this letter
in the spirit in which it is written and as a slight attempt at
recompense which I know can never fully be made.

Very sincerely,

BEALES CHADSEY.

At the same time Lieutenant Braxmar was fully aware before this letter
was written or sent that the charges implied against Mrs. Carter were
only too well founded. Beales Chadsey had said drunk what twenty men
in all sobriety and even the police at Louisville would corroborate.
Chadsey had insisted on making this clear to Braxmar before writing the
letter.

Chapter LII

Behind the Arras

Berenice, perusing the apology from Beales Chadsey, which her
mother--very much fagged and weary--handed her the next morning,
thought that it read like the overnight galla