ies of Newport vied with one
another for the privilege of being first to welcome him to our shores,
not because he was a freak, mind you, but "for art's sweet sake." Mrs.
Gushington-Andrews offered twenty-five hundred dollars for him as a
week-end guest, and Mrs. Gaster immediately went her bid a hundred per
cent. better. Henriette, in order to outdo every one else, promptly put
in a bid of ten thousand dollars for a single evening, and had supposed
the bargain closed when along came Mrs. Shadd's cards announcing that
she would be pleased to have Mrs. Van Raffles at Onyx House on Friday
evening, August 27th, to meet Herr Jockobinski, the eminent virtuoso.

"It's very annoying," said Henriette, as she opened and read the
invitation. "I had quite set my heart on having Jockobinski here. Not
that I care particularly about the music end of it, but because there is
nothing that gives a woman so assured a social position as being the
hostess of an animal of his particular kind. You remember, Bunny, how
completely Mrs. Shadd wrested the leadership from Mrs. Gaster two
seasons ago with her orang outang dinner, don't you?"

I confessed to having read something about such an incident in high
society.

"Well," said Henriette, "_this_ would have thrown that little episode
wholly in the shade. Of course Mrs. Shadd is doing this to retain her
grip, but it irritates me more than I can say to have her get it just
the same. Heaven knows I was willing to pay for it if I had to abscond
with a national bank to get the money."

"It isn't too late, is it?" I queried.

"Not too late?" echoed Henriette. "Not too late with Mrs. Shadd's cards
out and the whole thing published in the papers?"

"It's never too late for a woman of your resources to do anything she
has a mind to do," said I. "It seems to me that a person who could swipe
a Carnegie library the way you did should have little difficulty in
lifting a musicale. Of course I don't know how you could do it, but with
_your_ mind--well, I should be surprised and disappointed if you
couldn't devise some plan to accomplish your desires."

Henriette was silent for a moment, and then her face lit up with one of
her most charming smiles.

"Bunny, do you know that at times, in spite of your supreme stupidity,
you are a source of positive inspiration to me?" she said, looking at
me, fondly, I ventured to think.

"I am glad if it is so," said I. "Sometimes, dear Henriette, you will
find th