.. And why had Clive Hammond failed to enter and
greet his hostess first? Moreover, _how_ had he entered the solarium?
But things were happening in the living room. Janet Raymond, flushing so
that her sunburned face outdid her red hair for vividness, was slowly
leaving the room also. Through a window opening upon the wide front
porch Dundee saw the girl take her position against a pillar, then--a
thing she had not done before very probably--press her handkerchief to
her trembling lips.
But the bidding was going on, Karen Marshall piping in her childish
treble: "Three spades!"
Dundee took his place behind her chair, then silently beckoned to Penny
to shift from her own chair opposite Carolyn Drake to the chair Nita
Selim had left to go to her death. She nodded understandingly.
"Double!" quavered Carolyn Drake, next on the left to the dealer, and
managed to raise her eyebrows meaningly to Penny, her partner, who had
not yet changed places.
Penny, throwing herself into the spirit of the thing, scowled warningly.
No exchanging of illicit signals for Penny Crain! But the instant she
slipped into Nita Selim's chair her whole face and body took on a
different manner, underwent almost a physical change. She _was_ Nita
Selim now! She tucked her head, considered her cards, laughed a little
breathless note, then cried triumphantly:
"And I say--_five spades_! What do you think of _that_, partner?"
Then the girl who was giving an amazing imitation of Nita Selim changed
as suddenly into her own character as she changed chairs.
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