Occupying a position at once so ornate and so enviable, the feelings of
Mrs. Rittenhouse Smith may be imagined upon finding herself confronted.
with the tragical probability that one of her most important
dinner-parties would be a failure.
In preparing for this dinner-party she had thought deeply in the still
watches of the night, and she had pondered upon it in the silence
of noonday. For Mrs. Smith, above all others, knew that only by such
soulful vigilance can a perfect dinner be secured. It was her desire
that it should be especially bright intellectually, for it was to be
given to Miss Winthrop, of Boston, and was to include Miss Winthrop's
niece, Miss Grace Winthrop, also of Boston. These ladies, as she knew,
belonged to clubs which, while modestly named after the days of the
week, were devoted wholly to the diffusion of the most exalted mental
culture. Moreover, they both were on terms of intimacy with Mr. Henry
James. On the other hand, it was her desire that the dinner should
be perfect materially, because among her guests was to be Miss Grace
Winthrop's uncle, Mr. Hutchinson Port. It was sorely against Mrs.
Smith's will that Mr. Hutchinson Port was included in her list, for
he had the reputation of being the most objectionable diner-out in
Philadelphia. His conversation at table invariably consisted solely
of disparaging remarks, delivered in an undertone to his immediate
neighbors, upon the character and quality of the food. However, in the
present case, as Miss Grace Winthrop's uncle, he was inevitable.
And, such was Mrs. Smith's genius, she believed that she had mastered
the situation. Her list--excepting, of course, Mr. Hutchinson Port, and
he could not reasonably be objected to by his own relatives--was all
that she could desire. The nine other guests, she was satisfied, were
such as could be exhibited creditably even to ladies belonging to Boston
clubs and personally acquainted with Mr. Henry James. As to the dinner
itself, Mr. Rittenhouse Smith, who never spoke inconsiderately in
matters of this grave nature, had agreed with her that--barring, of
course, some Providentially interposed calamity such as scorching the
ducks or getting too much salt in the terrapin--even Mr. Hutchinson Port
would be unable to find a flaw in it.
And now, at the last moment, at twelve o'clock of the day on which the
dinner was to take place, came a note from the man upon whom she had
most strongly counted to make the affair a success--the brightest man
on her list, and the one who was to take out Miss Grace Winthrop--saying
that he was laid up with a frightful cold and face-ache! He tried to
make a joke of it, poor fellow, by adding a sketch--he sketched quite
nicely--of his swelled cheek swathed in a handkerchief. But Mrs.
Rittenhouse Smith was in no humor for joking; she was furious!
When a woman misses fire in this way, it usually is possible to fill her
place with a convenient young sister, or even with an elderly aunt. But
when a man is wanted, and, especially, as in the case in point, a clever
man, the matter very readily may become desperate. Mrs. Rittenhouse
Smith certainly was dismayed, yet was she not utterly cast down. She had
faith in her own quick wits, which had rescued her in times past from
other social calamities, though never from one darker than this, of
having, at a single fatal blow, her best man cut off from one of her
most important dinner-parties, and the dinner-party itself reduced to
thirteen; an ominous and dismal number that surely would be discovered,
and that would cast over her feast a superstitious gloom.
In this trying emergency Mrs. Smith acted with characteristic decision
and wisdom. She perceived that to send invitations simultaneously to
all the possible men of her acquaintance might involve her in still
more awkward complications, while to send invitations successively might
result in a fatal loss of time. Obviously, the only practicable course
was a series of prompt, personal appeals from one to another, until
assurance was received that the vacant place certainly would be filled.
Therefore she despatched a note to Mr. Rittenhouse Smith, at his
down-town office, acquainting him with the impending catastrophe and
bidding him drop all other concerns until he had averted it by securing
a satisfactory man.