Vicky, we have missed you! Come over here and listen to Ted's latest old joke!"
"No, come over here and hear this awful gossip Ariadne is telling for solemn truth. It's the very worst taradiddle she ever got off!"
"Here's a place, Vicky Van, a nice cosy corner, 'tween Jim and me.
Come on, Ladygirl."
"No, thanks, everybody. I'm going to cut in at this table. May I? Am I a nuisance?"
"A Vicky-nuisance! They ain't no such animal!" and Bailey Mason rose to give her his chair.
"No," said she, "I want you to stay, Mr. Mason. 'Cause why, I want to play wiz you. Cassie, you give me your place, won't you, Ducky-Daddles? and you go and flirt with Mr. Calhoun. He knows the very newest flirts! Go, give him a tryout."
Vicky Van settled herself into her seat with the happy little sigh of the bridge lover, who sits down with three good players, and in another moment she was breathlessly looking over her hand. "Without," she said, triumphantly, and knowing she'd say no word more to me for the present, I walked away with Cassie Weldon.
And Cassie was good fun. She took me to the piano, and with the soft pedal down, she showed me a new little tone picture she had made up, which was both picturesque and funny.
"You'd better go into vaudeville!" I exclaimed, as she finished, "your talent is wasted on the concert platform."
"That's what Vicky tells me," she returned. "Sometimes I believe I will try it, just for fun."
"You'll find it such fun, you'll stay in for earnest," I assured her, for she had shown a bit of inventive genius that I felt sure would make good in a little musical turn.
CHAPTER II
MR. SOMERS
It was nearly midnight when Steele came, and with him was a man I had never seen before, and whom I assumed to be the Mr. Somers I had heard about.
And it was. As Steele entered, he cast his eye around for Vicky, and saw her at the bridge table down at the end of the room. Her back was toward us, and she was so absorbed in the game she did not look round, if, indeed, she heard the noise of their arrival.
The two men stopped near the group I was with and Steele introduced
Mr. Somers.
A little curiously I looked at him, and saw a large, self-satisfied looking man wearing an expansive smile and expensive apparel. Clothes the very best procurable, jewelry just inside the limits of good taste—he bore himself like a gentleman, yet there was an unmistakable air of ostentatious wealth that repelled me. A second look made me think Mr. Somers had dined either late or twice, but his greetings were courteous and genial and his manner sociable, if a little patronizing. He seemed a stranger to all present, and his eye roved about for the charming hostess Steele had told him of.
"We'll reach Miss Van Allen presently." Steele laughed, in answer to the glance, "if, indeed, we dare interrupt her game. Let's make progress slowly."
"No hurry," returned Somers, affably, beaming on Cassie Weldon and meeting Ariadne Gale's receptive smile. "I'm anchored here for the moment. Miss Weldon? Ah, yes, I've heard you sing. Voice like a lark—like a lark."
Clearly, Somers was not much of a purveyor of small talk. I sized him up for a lumbering oldster, who wanted to be playful but didn't quite know how.
He had rather an austere face, yet there was a gleam in his eye that belied the austerity. His cheeks were fat and red, his nose prominent, and he was clean shaven, save for a thick white mustache, that drooped slightly on either side of a full-lipped mouth. His hair was white, his eyes dark and deep-set, and he could easily be called a handsome man. He was surely fifty, and perhaps more. Had it not been for a certain effusiveness in his speech, I could have liked him, but he seemed to me to lack sincerity.
However, I am not one to judge harshly or hastily, and I met him half way, and even helped him in his efforts at gay affability.
"You've never been here before?" I asked; "Good old Steele to bring you to-night."
"No, never before," and he glanced around appreciatively, "but I shall, I hope, come often. Charming little nest; charming ladies!" a bow included those nearest.
"Yes, indeed," babbled Ariadne, "fair women and brave men."
"Brave, yes," agreed Somers, "to dare the glances of such bright eyes. I must protect my heart!" He clasped his fat hands pretty near where his heart was situated, and grinned with delight as Ariadne also "protected" her heart.
"Ah," he cried, "two hearts in danger! I feel sure we shall be friends, if only because misery loves company."
"Is it really misery with you?" and Ariadne's sympathy was so evidently profound, that Cassie Weldon and I walked away.
"I'll give Ariad her innings," said the vivacious Miss Weldon, "and
I'll make up to the Somers kid later. Where'd Vicky pick him up?"
"She doesn't know him at all. Norman Steele brought him unbeknownst."
"No! Why, Vick doesn't allow that sort of thing."
"So I'm told. Any way, Steele did it."
"Well, Vicky's such a good-natured darling, maybe she won't mind for once. She won't, if she likes the little stranger. He's well-meaning, at any rate."
"So's Ariadne. From her smile, I think she well means to sell him her latest 'Autumn In The Adirondacks,' or 'Lady With A Handbag'."
"Now, don't be mean!" but Cassie laughed. "And I don't blame her if she does. Poor Ad paints above the heads of the public, so if this is a high-up Publican, she'd better make sales while the sun shines."
"What's her work like?"
"You can see more of it in this house than anywhere else. Vicky is so fond of Ariadne and so sorry her pictures don't sell better, that she buys a lot herself."
"Does Miss Gale know Miss Van Allen does it out of—"
"Don't say charity! No, they're really good stuff, and Vicky buys 'em for Christmas gifts and bridge prizes."
"Does she ever play for prizes? I thought she liked a bit of a stake, now."
"Yes, at evening parties. But, often we have a dove game of an afternoon, with prizes and pink tea. Vicky Van isn't a gay doll, you know. She's—sometimes, she's positively domestic. I wish she had a nice husband and some little kiddies."
"Why hasn't she?"
"Give it up. She's never seen any man she loved, I s'pose."
"Perhaps she'll love this Somers person."
"Heaven forbid! Nothing less than a crown prince would suit Vicky Van.
Look, she's turning to meet him. Won't he be bowled over!"
I turned, and though there were several people between us, I caught a glimpse of Somers' face as he was presented to Miss Van Allen. He was bowled over. His eyes beamed with admiration and he bowed low as he raised to his lips the dainty, bejeweled hand.
Vicky, apparently, did not welcome this
