you, Daddy?"

[Illustration: _"Oh daddy don't mind:--do you daddy?"--_]

"Daddy" was Miss Evalena Gray's husband, but was under such peculiarly
good spiritual "control" that he merely smiled a sickly smile and
murmured that he believed not.

Miss Gray proceeded to examine the note without waiting for the timid
Mr. Gray's opinion, and suddenly exclaimed:

"Gracious! I'm going right over there!"

"What for?" inquired Bischoff anxiously, while Mr. Gray's lips pursed
into the form of an unspoken inquiry; "man or woman, eh?"

"None of your business!" she answered promptly. "Here, Leveraux, help me
on with my wrappings. You drive home. A friend of mine that I haven't
seen for all the last three years is stopping over there, and wants to
see me. I may stay all night. If I shouldn't want to, I'll order a
carriage and come down in an hour or two."

The three, who were elegantly supported by this woman's juggleries,
seemed to realize that there was no use of opposing her; and without
knowing whether it was a man or woman she intended visiting at that hour
of the night, went gloomily home, while a few minutes later Miss Gray,
unannounced, and at the unseasonable hour of eleven o'clock, was
knocking at the door of Mrs. Winslow's room.

In a moment more, though Mrs. Winslow was on the point of retiring, and
was in that easy _deshabille_ in which women love to wander about, doing
a hundred unmentionable and unimportant things before getting into bed
for good, Miss Gray was pushing her lithe form through the cautiously
opened door, and at once unlimbered her tongue and her reserve; the
result of which, as noted by my operative, showed the eminent vulgarity
of the two female frauds, and illustrated the fact that whatever
pretensions they might make, their conversation alone would serve to
discover the inherent and low vileness of their character.

"Oh, you dear old fraud!" said Evalena, entering, after Mrs. Winslow had
virtuously given herself sufficient time to ascertain that there was no
evil-minded man at the door, and had gladly admitted her visitor; "if
you've got any other company, of course I won't come!"

Mrs. Winslow laughed knowingly, and then told her visitor how really
glad she was to see her. She was sincere in this, and sincerity, even in
a bad cause, is a redeeming feature.

"Well, well, you rascal," continued Miss Gray in a jolly, rollicking
sort of a way, "couldn't wait until to-morrow. Where _have_ you be