“Indeed she could so far as I am concerned Mrs. Edgerton I have never had a word to tell to your husband that you might not of listened in on.” So she thinks again and says, “It is a shame that there should be two dinners and one should wait and get cold,” she says. “Yes ma’am,” I says. “I can see that is a waste.” But her next one floors me. “Will you come to dine at my home Miss Riggs?” she says real sweet. So then I have to think in a hurry. “What is that Mrs. Edgerton?” I says. “Are you expecting to make a boob out of me?” “You have political information to give my husband,” she says, “and when a woman’s husband is in political life it is the custom for her to give dinner-parties to help his career. I invite you to dine with us.” And so I gives a gulp like I had another pickle in my throat and I says, “Very well ma’am I will come.” “And when?” says she. “The sooner the better will you come tomorrow evening?” “I have no other date,” I says. So she stoops down and picks up her muff and in it she has got not a pistol but a vanity case. Her fingers is trembling so that she can hardly open it but she does and there is a gold pencil and a little note-book and she puts it against the wall and writes the address 2349 Alexander Hamilton Place Thursday at 7.30 and she hands it to me. “There it is and I hope you will not disappoint us.” “Mrs. Edgerton,” I says, “you must understand I have not got no good clothes for such a party--” “Pray,” she says, “don’t give a thought to that. This is to be an intellectual and political occasion and you may wear your street dress that my husband has bought you,” she says, “and I will wear the same kind that he has bought me.” And so then she sweeps out and leaves Mrs. Budd and I to spend the rest of the night talking it over. And gee Mom when I thought about her I had made up my mind that I would count it a victory if I got off without a bullet in me and here now I have got another free dinner coming! Your delighted MAME. LETTER XII IN WHICH I MISS HALF A DINNER DEAR MOM: I have just got back from Mrs. Edgerton’s party and I have sure got some news now. How I did wished I could of had you here to advise with. The best guess I could make was that Mrs. Edgerton was figuring to show her husband the difference between a real lady and a manicure girl but Mrs. Budd she says “Maybe she really wants to know you because why,” she says, “if a woman’s husband is got to talk about politics with manicure girls any wife would rather it was where she could be around.” But I think Mrs. Budd must of been impressed by that squirrel-skin coat for of course any landlady will trust you more if you have got a thing like that on.