asked hopefully.

"Not by a jugful!... But what's the matter with you this morning, young
woman? You're looking less like a new penny and more like one that has
been too much in circulation."

"Thanks!" Penny retorted sarcastically; then she grinned wryly. "You are
right, as a matter of fact. I was up too late last night--bridge at the
Mileses'."

"_Bridge!_" Dundee ejaculated incredulously. "So the bridge party _did_
take place, in spite of the society editor's discreet announcement
yesterday that 'owing to the tragic death of Mrs. Selim, the regular
every-other-Wednesday dinner-bridge of the Forsyte Alumnae Association
will not be held this evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Tracey Miles,
as scheduled'."

"It wasn't a 'dinner-bridge' and it really wasn't intended to be a
party," Penny corrected him. "It just sort of happened, and of all the
ghastly evenings--"

"Tell me about it," Dundee suggested. "Knowing this town's telephone
service as I do, I'll have plenty of time to listen, and you don't know
how all-agog I am for inside gossip on Hamilton's upper crust."

"Idiot!" Penny flung at him scornfully. "You know society would bore you
to death, but I don't think you would have been exactly bored last
night, knowing, as I do, your opinion of Dexter Sprague."

"Sprague? Good Lord! Was he there?... This does promise to be
interesting! Tell me all!"

"Give me time!" Penny snapped. "I might as well talk, since there's
almost no work for me to do, with Bill away.... Ralph called me up last
night at dinner time, and asked me if I felt equal to playing bridge
again. He said that he, Clive, Tracey and Johnny Drake had lunched
together yesterday--as they frequently do--at the Athletic Club, and
that Judge Marshall, who had been lunching at another table with his
friend, Attorney Sampson, stopped at their table and suggested a bridge
game at his home for last night. Hugo said he wanted to coax Karen into
playing again, so she would get over her hysterical aversion to the game
since she had to replay that awful 'death hand'.... You see," Penny
explained parenthetically, "Hugo is a regular bridge fiend, and
naturally he doesn't want to be kept out of his game."

"Brute!" Dundee cried disgustedly. "Why couldn't he give the poor girl a
few days more?"

"That's what I thought," Penny acknowledged. "But _I_ didn't get an
inhibition against bridge, and the idea rather appealed to me
personally. The last few days haven't