As the Burgesses were reviewing the incidents of the day at dinner that
evening, Mrs. Burgess remarked suddenly,
“Now that it’s all over, Web, do you think it was quite fair, really
_right_?”
“You mean,” asked Webster, huskily, “that you’re not satisfied with the
way it was handled?”
“Oh, not that! But it was almost _too_ complete; and poor Mrs. Gurley
must be horribly humiliated.”
“Crushed, I should say,” remarked Webster cheerfully. “This ought to
hold her for a while.”
“But that fake delegation you had at the station to deceive Mrs.
Gurley----”
“I beg your pardon,” Webster interrupted, “I assure you I had nothing
to do with it.”
“Well, all I _know_ is that just before dinner Mrs. Eastman called me
up and said the Governor had just telephoned her that Mrs. Gurley tried
to _kiss_ the hand of some man she took for the Illyrian Minister of
Foreign Affairs as he went through the station gates. And the man is
nothing but a rubber in a Turkish bath. You _wouldn’t_ have done that,
Web, would you?”
“No, dear, I would not! For one thing, I wouldn’t have been smart
enough to think it up.”
“And you know, Web, I shouldn’t want you to think me mean and envious
and jealous. I’m not really that way; you know I’m not! And of course
if I’d thought you’d really bring the Illyrians here, I should never
have mentioned it at all.”
Webster passed his hand across his brow in bewilderment. At moments
when he thought he was meeting the most exacting requirements of the
marital relationship it was enormously disturbing to find himself
defeated.
“Your luncheon was a great success; the talk at the table was
wonderful; and the girls you brought in made a big hit. It’s the best
party you ever pulled off,” he declared warmly.
“I’m glad you think so,” she said slowly, giving him her direct gaze
across the table, “but there were one or two things I didn’t quite
like, Web. It seemed to me your young friend Tibbotts was a little
_too_ conspicuous. I’m surprised that you let him come to the house.
You couldn’t--you _wouldn’t_ have let him _know_ how the Illyrians came
here? He really seemed to assume full charge of the party, and in the
drawing room he was flirting outrageously with pretty Lois Hubbard,
and kept her giggling when I’d asked her _specially_ to be nice to the
Fourth Assistant Secretary, who’s a bachelor, you know. And if Mrs.
Hubbard _knew_ we had introduced Lois to a boy from the racetrack----”
“It would be awful,” said Webster with one of the elusive grins that
always baffled her.
“What would be awful?” she demanded.
“Oh, nothing! I was thinking of Wrong Number and what a blow it would
be if I should lose him. I must remember to raise his salary in the
morning.”