The telephone on a little stand at her elbow rang, and she took the receiver from its spreading violet skirts and raised it to her ear. As she had expected, it was Clavering. He told her that he had promised Gora Dwight the evening before to ask her permission to announce their engagement. For a moment she stared into the instrument. Then she said hurriedly, almost breathlessly: "No--I'd rather not. I hate the vulgarity of congratulations--publicity of my private affairs. I've always said that when one marries a second time the decent thing to do is to marry first and tell afterward." "But they guess it, you know." "That is quite different." It was Madame Zattiany who spoke now and her tones were deliberate and final. "Quite a different thing from being congratulated, and tormented by newspapers." She dismissed the subject. "I shall be free two weeks from today. What do you think of that?" Her voice was both gay and tender. "Judge Trent will see at once about engaging my stateroom. Don't tell me that that play of yours will prevent you from following shortly after." "Not a bit of it. We shall only be gone two months, and even if Hogarth succeeds in placing it with his manager as he expects, it might be several months before rehearsals." "Then it all fits in quite charmingly. You are coming to dinner tonight?" "Well, rather." "Mind you come early. I have many things to tell you." "It'll not be for that I'll come early." Mary smiled and hung up the receiver. She would have to let him return to New York for a time--possibly. But herself, she would go on to Vienna. No doubt about that. She returned to her letters. Those that required answers she placed in a separate heap with a pencilled note on the back, for she was neat and methodical; she even slit the envelopes with a paper-knife that was always at hand for the purpose, and the envelopes were dropped at once into the waste basket. The contents for the most part were expected, and related to her work in Vienna, the disposition of moneys she had sent over, and the usual clamoring for more. But when she had read halfway through a long letter from Baroness Tauersperg, in whose capable hands she had left the most important of her charities, she involuntarily stiffened and sat forward a little. Several pages of her friend's letters were always devoted to business, the rest to gossip. In return Mary enlivened her own letters with many of her American adventures, although she had made no mention of Clavering.