For a moment the
detective had the illusion that he was in England again....
"How do you do, Mr. Dundee?... This is Miss Burden.... My three
offspring--Peter the third, Eleanor, and Bobby.... Will you please take
the children to the playroom now, Miss Burden?... Thank you!... Tea, Mr.
Dundee? Or shall I order you a highball?"
"Nothing, thanks," Dundee answered, grateful for her friendliness but
nonplussed by it. Not for the first time he felt a sick distaste for the
profession he had chosen....
"It's all over," Lois Dunlap said in a low voice, as the butler
retreated. "Lydia made her look very beautiful.... I thought it would be
rather horrible, having to see her, as the poor child requested in her
note to Lydia, but I'm glad now I did. She looked as sweet and young and
innocent as she must have been when she first wore the royal blue
velvet."
"I'm glad," Dundee said sincerely. Then he leaned toward her across the
tea table. "Mrs. Dunlap, will you please tell me just how you persuaded
Mrs. Selim to come to Hamilton--so far from Broadway?"
"Why certainly!" Lois Dunlap looked puzzled. "But it really did not take
much persuasion after I showed her some group photographs we had made
when we Forsyte girls put on 'The Beggar's Opera' here last October--a
benefit performance for the Forsyte Alumnae Scholarship fund.
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