not come again. For one thing Carmelita's high coloring, her large seductive black eyes, her colorful gowns always in the mode though they were simple and cost little, her Spanish birth, Paris, and the unusual circumstances surrounding her marriage—all this made the wives among the Drakes' guests a little wary.
Upon the one occasion on which Sanford Drake, following repeated urgings by Dudley, called, Dudley had nearly succumbed to nervous prostration. He had earnestly impressedupon Carmelita and Laura the seriousness of the event in advance. Carmelita, though she had never met the famous financier, had always contended that he had mistreated her husband, that Dudley should have been a partner long since. Nevertheless she promised to do her best to be agreeable to him. "And then Sanford Drake, pompous as usual, obviously sniffing a little though politely at the smallness and simplicity of their accommodations, had arrived in the throes of a well-developed grouch. Laura, unduly thrilled at the state occasion, had quite thoroughly spoiled the dinner and Carmelita, glimpsing the tragedy in the dishes as they were set before her to serve—over-done chicken, charred potatoes, sooted peas—had forthwith allowed her temper to be spoiled also. What had followed was a splendid example of the peculiarly exasperating
