couldn't stand it with Mrs.
Ess Kay on account of her brother, and I'd left suddenly to join Sally
Woodburn in the country, where I was boarding quite close to her. I
wrote to Mrs. Ess Kay, too, and said the same thing, asking her to
kindly send on my boxes. I didn't mention Mr. Brett, because she
wouldn't have remembered who he was, or if she did by any chance, she
would only disapprove of his daring to exist still, and perhaps write
or wire something rude.

She sent the boxes by what they call "express," but didn't answer my
letter, which rather astonished me, as I had thought she would scold,
and had dreaded it. But when I told Sally, she wasn't as much surprised
as I was. She knew already everything that happened after I ran away
from The Moorings, and told me all about it, which interested me a
great deal. Mrs. Ess Kay had written her some things, and Mrs. Pitchley
(whose maid is an intimate friend of Mrs. Ess Kay's Louise) had
supplied all the missing details.

It seems that the day after the Pink Ball Mrs. Ess Kay had one of her
headaches--and no wonder. Feeling very ill, she didn't take much
interest in me, and took it for granted when Louise said I wasn't out
of my room, that I wanted to sleep till luncheon.

Potter had been so furious that he thought to punish me for my sins by
sulking. Mrs. Ess Kay did not appear at luncheon, and Potter went out
somewhere. But when I didn't show myself, or even ring, the servants
began to think it odd, and spoke to Louise. She knocked at my door, and
when after rapping several times there was no answer, she opened it to
find the room empty, the bed smooth, my boxes packed, and all Mrs. Ess
Kay's presents to me spread out on a sofa.

By that time it was after two; and if only they had known, I was
leaving the Waldorf-Astoria to take the train for Chicago with Mr.
Brett.

Mrs. Ess Kay was so nervous with her headache and the reaction after
all her work in getting up the Great Affair, that when she was told I
was nowhere to be found, she had hysterics, and slapped Louise.

Potter was sent for to the Casino, and came home in a rage. They talked
things over, and made up their minds that I had either caught a ship
sailing for home, or else had gone to Chicago to join Sally. If it
hadn't been that they were afraid of a scandal coming out in some
horrid society paper, they would have applied to the police for help,
but as it was they didn't dare, and Potter said he could mana