"I intend to show Mrs. Van der Windt what I can _do_," she answered. "Suppose a lot of the people you want refuse you, so that they can be fresh for the ball?" Sally suggested. "They won't," said Mrs. Ess Kay, "when they have seen what I shall say on the invitations." Then she got up, went to her desk, took out some engraved cards which she had ready, all but filling in the date, and wrote something in one corner. "What do you think of that?" she asked Sally. Sally took the card, looked at it for a minute, laughed, and passed it on to me, while Potter came and stared over my shoulder. She had written across the card: "Fancy Dress, with Masks. A Visit to the Maze; and Aladdin's Cave." "Do you think that will bring them?" she enquired, with a triumphant and mysterious air. "I think it _will_," said Sally. "You know your business, old girl," remarked Potter. "They'll want to know what it means, and they'll be bound to come and find out. What _is_ your idea, anyway?" "I'll tell you another time," said Mrs. Ess Kay. "I should like it to be a surprise for Betty, just as it will be for people outside. She'll enjoy it more." I didn't tease to know the secret, though I was really curious, especially about Aladdin's Cave, which seemed to promise something gorgeous. The mystery was religiously kept; but there was plenty of excitement in sending out the invitations. There were endless discussions between Mrs. Ess Kay and Potter, and though she seemed so angry with Mrs. Van der Windt and several other members of the Ball committee, for trying to make a stand against her, she was perfectly ruthless about the names she would scratch off the lists her secretary was continually making out and revising for her. I heard her say that she wouldn't have dreamed of asking the Pitchleys, if they hadn't "got hold of" Mohunsleigh; and that Cora Pitchley, whatever else she might be, was the cleverest woman in Newport, to have scooped in all the honours. Though to this day I can't see exactly what she meant, for she never would explain. Anyhow, whatever the superlatively clever thing was that Mrs. Pitchley had done, there was no longer a question of her being kept out from the Pink Ball, or anything else. People were charming to her, and we met Mrs. Van der Windt herself at the Chateau at a luncheon party with a vaudeville entertainment afterwards, and also at a dinner. Mrs. Van der Windt seemed to like my cousin, Mohunsleigh, very much, too, and gave a moonlight motor car picnic especially for him, with only a few people asked besides ourselves, and the Pitchleys and Tom Doremus.