"
"But of course," ventured Miss Merrivale, wishing to put herself on
record and striking a false note, as usually happens in such cases,
"one doesn't really know these people. They are only brought in to
amuse."
"One never knows undesirable people, my dear," Mrs. Staggchase
responded, without the faintest shadow of the sarcastic intent which
her guest yet secretly felt in her words.
"Bless me!" broke in Elsie Dimmont, with characteristic explosiveness.
"What an abandoned creature I must be! I am actually going to the
Fenton's to dine to-night."
"Mr. Fenton," Mrs. Bodewin Ranger responded, in her soft voice, "is a
gentleman by birth, and his wife was a Caldwell; her mother was a
Calvin, you know."
Ethel Mott laughed.
"And so he passes," she said, "in spite of his being an artist. How
pleased he would be if he knew it."
"It would be worth while to tell him," Mrs. Frostwinch interpolated,
"just to hear his comments."
"We owe Arthur Fenton more scores than we can ever settle," observed
the hostess, "for the things he says about women. He said to me the
other day that the society of lovely woman is always a delight except
when a man was in earnest about something."
"I said to him, one night," added Elsie Dimmont, "that Kate West wasn't
in her first youth. 'Oh, no!' he said, 'her third or fourth at least.'"
The others smiled, except Mrs.
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