Mrs. Raffles: Being the Adventures of an Amateur CrackswomanBangs, John Kendrick
General
Mrs. Raffles: Being the Adventures of an Amateur Crackswoman
Bangs, John Kendrick
Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William), 1866-1921 -- Parodies, imitations, etc.; Jewel thieves -- Fiction
"Yes," I answered.
"Tell him to hand this to Mrs. Shadd the very first thing upon her
return to-morrow evening," she said, hastily scribbling off a note and
putting it in an envelope, which by chance she left unsealed, so that on
my way back below-stairs I was able to read it. What it said was that
she would be only too happy to oblige Mrs. Shadd, and was very sorry
indeed to hear that her son had been injured in an automobile accident
while running into Boston from Bar Harbor. It closed with the line, "you
must know, my dear Pauline, that there isn't anything I wouldn't do for
you, come weal or come woe."
This I handed to Bunderby and he made off. On my return Henriette was
dressed for travel.
"I must take the first train for New York," she said, excitedly. "You
will have the music-room prepared at once, Bunny. Mrs. Shadd's musicale
will be given here. I am going myself to make all the necessary
arrangements at the New York end. All you have to do is to get things
ready and rely on your ignorance for everything else. See?"
I could only reflect that if a successful issue were dependent upon my
ignorance I had a plentiful supply of it to fall back on. Henriette made
off at once for Providence by motor-car, and got the midnight train out
of Boston for the city where, from what I learned afterwards, she must
have put in a strenuous day on Thursday. At any rate, a great sensation
was sprung on Newport on Friday morning. Every member of the smart set
in the ten-o'clock mail received a little engraved card stating that
owing to sudden illness in the Shadd family the Shadd musicale for that
evening would be held at Bolivar Lodge instead of in the Onyx House
ballroom. Friday afternoon Jockobinski's private and particular piano
arrived at the Lodge and was set up promptly in the music-room, and
later when the caterers arrived with the supper for the four hundred
odd guests bidden to the feast all was in readiness for them. Everything
was running smoothly, and, although Henriette had not yet arrived, I
felt easy and secure of mind until nearing five-thirty o'clock when Mrs.
Shadd herself drove up to the front-door. Her color was unusually high,
and had she been any but a lady of the _grande monde_ I should have said
that she was flustered.
She demanded rather than asked to see my mistress, with a hauteur born
of the arctic snow.
"Mrs. Van Raffles went to New York Wednesday evening," said I, "and has
not yet returned. I am expecting her every minute, madame. She must be
here for the musicale. Won't you wait?"
"Indeed I will," said she, abruptly. "The musicale, indeed! Humph!" And
she plumped herself down in one of the drawing-room chairs so hard that
it was as much as I could do to keep from showing some very unbutlerian
concern for the safety of the furniture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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