drop in the bucket toward paying her other bills. She looked at it with a pathetic little smile. Poor Dudley. She pressed her lips against the paper whimsically. There was another check in the wall-safe, the five thousand dollar note from Rao-Singh, in payment of the kiss. Mrs. Peabody and Mrs. Hurd had promised to drive over the following morning, Monday, for a final settlement of the receipts from the Fête and she was to deliver Rao-Singh's check, together with other smaller, miscellaneous receipts in her possession to them then.
Carmelita held Rao-Singh's check in her hand. It was made out to "Cash" and signed with the cramped English writing of the Hindu. Her cheeks still burned with the thought of what it had bought, and cost her. Suddenly a mad idea flashed through her brain and, though she tried to dismiss it, it recurred to her constantly all through the afternoon. She had replaced Rao-Singh's check in the safe but the picture of it as a life-saver was continually flashing into her troubled brain.
It seemed to her to open a road out of her difficulties—a risky, thorny road to be sure, but perhaps worth the chance.
Lucy Hodge had invited her to a party at her house that evening in honor of the group of internationally famous tennis players who
